Election 2012: A Candidate With Economic Heft, Paul Ryan is No Sarah Palin

By Martin Hutchinson

Win or lose, the most recent vice-presidential choices never mattered much when it came to the economy.

From Joe Biden to Sarah Palin to John Edwards, none of them were ever known for their grasp of economic policy.

But Paul Ryan is different.

His selection as vice presidential nominee last weekend has significant implications for the economy if the Republican ticket wins Election 2012.

Paul Ryan: A Big-Government Conservative. by Tad DeHaven

Mitt Romney’s selection of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate has been well received by the Republican faithful. Movement conservatives in particular have been energized with the pick given that, unlike Romney, Ryan is actually one of them.

The enthusiasm from the Republican right is hardly surprising — these days a GOP candidate need only oppose a Democrat’s expansion of government-provided health care, promise to protect the military-industrial complex, and talk a good game about free markets to win their support. For libertarians and those in the tea party movement who yearn for a federal government that adheres to the limits prescribed in the Constitution, Ryan offers temptation but not much else.

Why Paul Ryan Is Really Different

The Paul Ryan Choice

The Paul Ryan Choice

By Thomas Sowell

  Governor Mitt Romney's choice of Congressman Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate is one of those decisions that seem obvious — if not inevitable — in retrospect, even though it was by no means obvious to most of us beforehand.

Anyone who wants to get a quick sense of who Paul Ryan is should watch a short video of a February 2010 meeting in which Congressman Ryan politely, but devastatingly, "schools" Barack Obama on the utter fraudulence of the statistics that the Obama administration was using to claim that ObamaCare would reduce the deficit. That video is available on the Drudge Report.
As a long-time member, and now chairman, of the Budget Committee in the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan is thoroughly familiar with both the facts and the fictions in the federal government's budget. In recent years, the fictions have grown much bigger than the facts. But, as Congressman Ryan reminded the president, hiding spending is not the same as reducing spending.

Three Reasons Paul Ryan Makes the U.S. a Better Investment

By Amity Shlaes  

Maybe U.S. financial markets have a chance after all. That's the message many of us take away from the news that Representative Paul Ryan will join Mitt Romney on the Republican presidential ticket.
To see why the bulls should be snorting, start by recalling the pattern in past elections. Candidates talked a lot about jobs. Then they patted themselves on the back for having covered "the economy."
But jobs don't cover the economy from the point of view of investors. To investors, job creation is a second-order effect. Market participants care first about interest rates, exchange rates, bond prices and the one great factor that affects all three: the long-term solvency of a bond company called the U.S. government. Yet the issues that affect that solvency are rarely taken up in the months before a general election. Even discussing Social Security has traditionally been considered the political equivalent of stepping on a "third rail."

The Paul Ryan Choice

The Paul Ryan Choice

By Thomas Sowell -

Governor Mitt Romney's choice of Congressman Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate is one of those decisions that seem obvious -- if not inevitable -- in retrospect, even though it was by no means obvious to most of us beforehand.
Anyone who wants to get a quick sense of who Paul Ryan is should watch a short video of a February 2010 meeting in which Congressman Ryan politely, but devastatingly, "schools" Barack Obama on the utter fraudulence of the statistics that the Obama administration was using to claim that ObamaCare would reduce the deficit. That video is available on the Drudge Report.

Paul Ryan: Don't Believe the Hype. by Gene Healy

If nothing else, Mitt Romney's selection of Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., as his running mate has made a dull and joyless campaign a little more interesting.

When I heard the news, my internal monologue went something like this:
"Are wonks suddenly cool?"
"Why is a guy my age potentially a heartbeat away from the presidency?"
"Does he really only have 6 to 8 percent body fat?"
"Why do I know that?"
"Will someone please buy Ryan a suit that fits?"

Paul Ryan Should Be the Ross Perot of 2012

Illustration by Kelsey Dake

By Virginia Postrel  

 

The traditional roles of a U.S. presidential running mate are ticket balancer and attack dog. With their choices of Al Gore and Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush added another: the brainy policy partner with big-picture views.
Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is following that model in picking Paul Ryan. Ryan fires up the party’s base, but he’s also a policy wonk who could actually help a victorious candidate govern.

Opinion: Why Not Paul Ryan?

How Obama Will Cash In on Paul Ryan: Medicare, Taxes, Education & More

by Robert Shrum 

Romney’s choice of running mate accelerates the move away from the 2012 election as a straight-line referendum on the economy. Now it is unmistakably and irretrievably a decision about the future, says Robert Shrum.

Never pick a man with a plan—at least not Paul Ryan’s kind of plan.

After every quadrennial vice-presidential audition, another cautionary guideline emerges. A spectacular example: post–Sarah Palin, any potential choice will be tested for minimum passable competence in foreign policy.

L-R: Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan and President Barack Obama. (Getty Images)

Ryan is an articulate, informed, self-proclaimed purveyor of “bold” ideas that also happen to be very bad, both substantively and politically. By the time the Obama campaign finishes with him, his specter, like hers, will become a red flag—in his case, a warning against selecting anyone who doesn’t conceal or soften his enmity to economic and social justice, but explicitly repudiates the safety net and basic protections for the middle class.

How Obama Will Cash In on Paul Ryan: Medicare, Taxes, Education & More

by Robert Shrum 

Romney’s choice of running mate accelerates the move away from the 2012 election as a straight-line referendum on the economy. Now it is unmistakably and irretrievably a decision about the future, says Robert Shrum.

Never pick a man with a plan—at least not Paul Ryan’s kind of plan.

After every quadrennial vice-presidential audition, another cautionary guideline emerges. A spectacular example: post–Sarah Palin, any potential choice will be tested for minimum passable competence in foreign policy.

L-R: Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan and President Barack Obama. (Getty Images)

Ryan is an articulate, informed, self-proclaimed purveyor of “bold” ideas that also happen to be very bad, both substantively and politically. By the time the Obama campaign finishes with him, his specter, like hers, will become a red flag—in his case, a warning against selecting anyone who doesn’t conceal or soften his enmity to economic and social justice, but explicitly repudiates the safety net and basic protections for the middle class.

Paul Ryan Is Thoughtful, Handsome and Misguided

By Peter R. Orszag 

As a fellow budget wonk, I like Paul Ryan a lot. But his policy proposals fall far short of his winning personality.
Ryan, the Wisconsin representative Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced today as his running mate, is both thoughtful and prolific. I could have many policy debates with him on a range of issues. Today, though, I’m going to focus on health care. Ryan’s approach to health care is somewhat akin to a doctor observing that an arm is finally showing some signs of healing -- and then deciding to amputate it.

Mitt Romney introduces Paul Ryan as his VP running mate

By Holly Bailey, Yahoo! News

Romney and Ryan in Norfolk, Va (WIn McNamee/Getty Images)

NORFOLK, Va.—Against the flag-draped backdrop of the USS Wisconsin, Mitt Romney formally introduced Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman from Wisconsin, as his vice presidential running mate on Saturday. Ryan's budget-cutting ideas have the potential to transform the presidential race. Support for his proposed mix of spending cuts and tax cuts has become a litmus test on the right--and opposing them has become a rallying cry on the left.