Friday, August 10, 2012

Wall Street Journal (and Everyone Else): I Love Me Some Paul Ryan - Romney: Meh - Romney Advisors: Well, Maybe…?

One of the biggest financial newspapers in the world endorsed, essentially, Paul Ryan to be Mitt Romney’s running mate.  The bonus here is that Ryan seems to be on the short list – and why not, he’s a young, good looking guy from a traditionally blue state that is one of the rising stars of the Republican Party.  It doesn’t just stop with the Wall Street Journal either; Slate is pushing for Paul as is the Weekly Standard and a litany of usually left-leaning publications.


So, why this love affair with the would-be financial reformer and boy scout-next-door looking guy?  The Republicans love him because he has a solid conservative voting record and he espouses all things conservative.  The Democrats love him because he has a solid conservative voting record and he espouses all things conservative.  The right sees him as a favored son, the left sees him as yet another nail in the Romney campaign coffin.  He’s essentially a Romney mini-me; a financial hawk that voted for both wars, voted against Obamacare and is at the forefront of entitlement program reform, meaning the pursuit of massive cuts in welfare, unemployment insurance and other things people affected by the worst economy in 70 years have needed to you know, live.  While every conservative that reads this
blog will disagree with me, that’s reason why he shouldn’t be chosen.

It’s no secret at this point that the Romney campaign is in trouble and given that Romney’s unfavorability rating is rising faster that bread dough on a hot day, at some point the Romney camp needs to do something to stop the bleeding.  By choosing Ryan, not only will Romney NOT bolster his campaign, he’ll start sliding down that hill real fast – and never be able to recover.   Why?  Remember, the Obama campaign controls the message and they have since day one.  They’ve painted Romney as a millionaire fat cat that’s pretty much told the middle class to go screw themselves.  Throw Ryan into the mix? All they’re going to paint him as is Romney’s errand boy.  Who should Romney choose?  For me, it’s simple, Pawlenty.  A nice guy that comes from one blue state that has enough electoral college votes to help get to 270.

While a conservative, Pawlenty is a moderate with blue collar roots from the Midwest.  The only thing more wholesome here is if he walked around holding two apple pies.  Romeny’s dad was an auto industry executive, Pawlenty’s dad was a truck driver.  Romney is a millionaire solid right-wing conservative, Pawlenty is a Reagan democrat.  A perfect match by any measure that as a running mate would soften Romney’s message and stance.

Unfortunately for Romney, Pawlenty will not be choice.  Not for any reason other than he doesn’t have the flash and media draw of a Ryan or even a Rubio.  It seems that the Romney camp has a preference for that kind of person, even through it will just give the Obama camp more ammunition to work with.

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