Tag: Mitt Romney

As Victor Davis Hanson points out:

> Expect the Ryan selection in the next few days to spawn a new flurry of “wealthy white man” invective in a manner that two Clinton-Gore tickets, a Gore-Lieberman ticket, and a Kerry-Edwards ticket never did.

These next few months are going to be interesting.

Dan Mitchell points out that the vice presidential selection rarely matters in elections. He also gives some of the positives and negatives of Paul Ryan from a libertarian perspective:

> *Here are the reasons why I’m happy.*

> I think Ryan genuinely believes in small government, low tax rates, and free markets. Heck, he’s even read Ayn Rand, and is willing to admit that he likes her writings.

> …

> He understands that not all entitlement reform is created equal. Instead of supporting means-testing (which produces implicit higher marginal tax rates) and unsustainable price controls, Ryan got his colleagues to support Medicaid block grants and premium support (or vouchers) for Medicare.

> …

> *Here are … reasons why I’m worried.*

> Both Romney and Ryan are somewhat sympathetic to a value-added tax. My worst-case scenario is they win the election, but then can’t get a good budget approved because of some squishy Republican senators who put self interest above national interest. Romney and Ryan then decide that this European-style national sales tax is the only way – on paper – of making the budget balance. In reality, of course, we’ll suffer the same fate as Europe since the VAT revenues will be used to finance ever-larger government.

That is just a sampling, but I think Congressman Ryan’s positives far outweigh his negatives.

> Governor Romney has made an inspired choice. Paul Ryan will make an excellent running mate and, if elected, vice president. What is most gratifying about the decision is, however, what it says about Romney himself.

> Romney could have decided to run a vague and vacuous campaign based on the idea that the public would default to the out party in a bad economy. By selecting Ryan, he has ensured that the campaign will instead to a significant degree be about a conservative governing agenda.

I agree with National Review. This is the choice I was hoping Governor Romney would make.

A description of Paul Ryan from [Rich Lowry over at National Review](http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/313564/don-t-fear-ryan-rich-lowry):

> Ryan is an ideologue in the best sense of the term. He is motivated by ideas and knows what he believes and why. But he’s not blinkered. He is an explainer and a persuader.

The media and the rest of the left will attack any selection[^fn1] of Congressman Ryan as Mitt Romney simply “catering to the far right.” Such criticism is usually code for “damn it, that was a good move.”

[^fn1]: For an explanation of how a running mate is selected, see [today’s National Review article from John Fund](http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/313571/great-vp-fake-out-john-fund)

> According to Romney insiders, Romney deeply appreciated Ryan’s willingness to privately share his critique of the campaign during the heated Republican primary, where Romney often struggled to make his case. As he watched from afar, long before he endorsed, Ryan drafted a series of detailed strategy and policy advisories, and discussed them with Romney over the phone. For Romney, those corporate-style memos made a lasting impression — and catapulted Ryan into Romney’s circle, where he has remained since.

Someone who can help Mitt Romney better explain conservative principles? That sounds like VP material to me.