Sunday, August 12, 2012
The short-term bounce of Paul Ryan
Short-term,
I think Mitt’s selection of Paul Ryan will help him. Ryan’s a smart, energetic,
and youthful incarnation of Jack Kemp. He’s going to mop up Joe Biden in any
debate, and Mitt is finally nailing down his conservative base of support. But
the latter is part of the problem: Mitt’s still trying to nail down his
conservative base by selecting Ryan, even though he’s had the GOP nomination nailed down for a few months now. So that’s why, after the initial rush of yesterday’s mostly
glowing reviews about Mitt’s “bold” choice, I’m now sort of with Howie. What does Ryan offer to voters hovering near
or around the political center? Not much at all. They’re the key swing voters,
not the couple thousand members of the Ayn Rand Society and the handful of
editorial writers at the WSJ. Ryan’s views on Medicare might even hurt the
ticket in the long term, though it probably won't take too big of a hit. VP selections usually don’t
add up to much in the big scheme of things. Dan Quayle, Jack Kemp, Geraldine
Ferraro, Joe Lieberman, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Dick Cheney, Al Gore, Llyod Bentsen. Some hurt. Some
helped. Some made no difference. It still mostly comes down to how voters view the main
candidate at the top of the ticket. … Fyi: You’ve probably already heard the comparisons: Romney-Ryan = Dole-Kemp. ... Fyi 2: Sarah Palin is clearly and
distinctly in her own VP-choice category.
Speaking
of Ayn Rand: Ryan is/was a Rand groupie. He’s recently said he’s since rejected
her philosophy, mostly, it appears, on the grounds that she was an atheist. Guess
he hadn’t noticed her strident atheism before handing out gift copies of her
novels to Capitol Hill staffers and others. He’s also still using much of her political language to describe his world view. But whatever.
