Ace is hyping a story that Paul Ryan is seriously considering a run for the Presidency. You have to wonder whether it stems from the fact that none of the candidates at the last debate even mentioned entitlement reform, which is the elephant in the room in American politics.
I sat next to Paul Ryan coming back on the plane from Washington about 4-5 years ago. We talked for a little while about the difficulty of being away from young kids for work. Good guy; dare I say, a regular guy. Incidentally, he was reading America Alone at the time on the plane. So, although he's best known as a budget guru, that's not the only area where he'd be a strong conservative.
That being said, I don't think he can win if he gets in -- not enough money, not enough organization, not enough time. And Romney and Perry are formidable candidates. But I hope he does anyway, because I think it would focus the debate on the important things and, at the very least, set the stage for him to run again, either in 2016 (God forbid that Obama gets re-elected!) or in 2020 (after eight years as VP?).
Ace thinks Ryan wouldn't be selected for VP, since any candidate is going to want to pick Marco Rubio to go after the Hispanic vote. I'm not sure I quite agree. I like Rubio, but he's pretty light on experience. Ryan has been in Washington for a lot longer than Obama was when he ran, so they couldn't pull the experience angle on him. Also, I think Rubio's Hispanic background would help Republicans in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California. Notice anything about those states? Three of them (FL, TX, and AZ) are locks for Republicans this time around, and one of them (CA) is going to go Democratic no matter what. So what good does Rubio really do you? Ryan would make the budget the main issue, which it ought to be, and he'd win you a toss-up state (WI).
But, holy mackerel, what a deep bench going forward if someone like Perry is choosing among Rubio, Ryan, Christie and Jindal for VP!
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