Paul Ryan

Those people with whom I often discuss politics know that my favorite candidate for President 18 months ago was Paul Ryan. In my view, Ryan had more knowledge about federal spending and important federal programs like Social Security and Medicare than any other potential president (including certainly Obama), and Ryan was not afraid to tell the truth to the American people about possible solutions to the seemingly intractable problems of wasteful spending. Ryan chose not to run for president; I understood his reasoning and accepted it at the time. Now, however, Mitt Romney has chosen Ryan to be his running mate. It is a wonderful choice.

What can one say about Ryan as a vice presidential candidate? I think it boils down to these points:

1) Ryan is more than qualified to be president should events place him in that office. Clearly, Ryan's forte is domestic issues; on those he has more knowledge and has shown more leadership than anyone else in Washington. At the same time, in the field of foreign affairs, Ryan has many years of experience dealing with foreign policy from the standpoint of a legislator. Indeed, Ryan has about six times more experience in that regard than Obama had when elected. (Of course, using Obama as the standard of experience is like using a blind man as the standard for measuring vision.)

2) Ryan will be able to handle the pressures of the campaign. He has been on countless national news shows for the last four years and has consistently done well in those appearances. He will be an able campaigner.

3) Ryan is able to present his views forcefully without making personal attacks on his opponents. Just look at his speech in Virginia this morning. Ryan criticized a great many of Obama's policies, but there were no personal attacks on Obama. While the Obamacrats claim Romney "murdered" the wife of a former employee and that Ryan is pushing granny off of a cliff, Ryan will answer with a clear and concise discussion of the actual facts. He will make the case that Obama and the Obamacrats are destroying the American Dream. He will make clear to his audience exactly what the truth is, and he will do this without rancor. Given the choice between Obama's over-the-top lies on the one hand and the facts and choices presented by Romney/Ryan on the other hand, I believe America will go with the truth. Indeed, just by his steady, calm and clearly intelligent arguments, Ryan will undermine the Obama campaign's soon to be televised attacks.

4) Ryan's presence on the ticket will push Medicare into focus as an issue. Many believe that this will move seniors towards Obama. That is a simplistic view in my opinion. The Medicare plan offered by Senator Wyden ( a liberal Democrat from Oregon) and Ryan let's all seniors and those approaching retirement stay on the current Medicare plan. On the other hand, Obama and the Obamacrats have cut over half a trillion dollars from future Medicare payments in order to take that money from seniors and to use it to pay for Obamacare. Not many seniors understand that for the first time in history, the government has attacked Medicare as we know it. Few understand that Obama and his party have carried out the biggest assault on Medicare ever. Ryan is perfectly suited to explaining this to America. In states like Florida and Pennsylvania where seniors are large segments of the electorate, this point alone may swing the vote to Romney. And without Pennsylvania and Florida, it is nearly impossible to imagine Obama winning re-election.

5) Ryan may bring Wisconsin to Romney as well. Ryan represents a district in the Milwaukee area. It is not Republican friendly; Gore, Kerry and Obama carried the district in the last three presidential elections. Despite that, Ryan has been re-elected to the House from this district with over 60% of the vote consistently. If Ryan can swing just 15% of his district to vote for the GOP ticket rather than the Obamacrats, that translates into a statewide swing of 1.5% from Obama to Romney. That may well be enough to swing Wisconsin into the GOP column. If other Wisconsinites are proud of their native son and vote for the GOP as a result, the odds of the GOP carrying Wisconsin get even better.