August
11th 2012
Posted under Election 2012 & Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan & Republican Party
Since there will be much discussion about Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate, I decided to created a thread specifically for reaction and links. Your reactions in the comments section. Links below. Expect more links to follow. I haven’t yet read all the links because the reaction is coming fast and furious, but they are from trusted sources.
Peter Brimelow of V-DARE
Daniel Larison here, here, here
More from Larison here and here
Savrola on 11 Aug 2012 at 7:26 pm #
It’s a great choice from Romney’s perspective.
I have officially put $100 bucks on Romney/Ryan to win, on Intrade.
RedPhillips on 11 Aug 2012 at 7:31 pm #
My reaction, which is shared by others at CHT, which they will hopefully share, is that at least he’s better than Rubio. Rubio is a disaster on foreign policy and would have hampered the “natural born citizen” debate re. Obama’s alleged foreign father.
That said, I am not sure this is a wise political move. The Democrats are sure to focus on the Ryan Budget which is heavy on entitlement reform.
Obviously entitlements must be reformed, but the two parties use the issue as a big game of chicken. “You go first.” “No, you go first.” I have always thought that the entitlement issue is going to have to be addressed by someone from outside the system, like a Ross Perot.
On paper, Ryan is a hawk, but Rubio strikes me as a true believer. Hopefully Ryan’s focus on budget crunching helps him realize that we can no longer afford to police the world.
DYD on 11 Aug 2012 at 7:58 pm #
Brimelow pretty much summed up my thoughts.
Savrola on 11 Aug 2012 at 8:43 pm #
Paul Ryan represents everything that is bad about the Republican Party and bad for America.
The Ryan budget was smoke and mirrors, but this election is about two holograms facing off, anyway.
C Bowen (Hawthorne) on 11 Aug 2012 at 10:34 pm #
Good for you, Sav–after suffering the Gore-Bush thing of 2000, I vowed to stay out of Presidential elections–though I did win.
Back in the day, the ethics were, if you didn’t have money on the game, one should not speak too loudly.
Still, I think it is a ridiculous choice for Romney and can only conclude he is content to throw it.
Don’t be afraid to short on your bet at Intrade.
roho on 11 Aug 2012 at 11:50 pm #
Is he qualified to be President?…………That is the #1 criteria for any VP.
And looking at both him and Biden, we should be HORIFIED!
So, who on the GOP Ticket is the Foreign Policy Guru?………Duh?…………Re-enter the Bush neocons for Bush 2.0, and get ready for neverending war, while the Bank is being ramsacked. Nobody listened to Ross Perot, and nobody listened to Ron Paul……….We deserve as much pain and humiliation as we receive!….The US will be toast by 2020, and people like Patrick Buchanan and Judge Napolitano will be seen as Prophets 50 years from now. I’m already sick of watching John Bolton starting his new advisory position!
Savrola on 12 Aug 2012 at 12:32 am #
For the record I am booked for steak-dinners for all of next week, as a result of well-placed bets on last week’s state primaries.
Kirt Higdon on 12 Aug 2012 at 4:37 am #
Agree with Savrola and Red. Ryan is everything that’s bad about the Republican party and bad for America and he’s still better than Rubio. Although, I think I’d phrase it that he’s a “lesser evil” than Rubio.
Feltan on 12 Aug 2012 at 12:10 pm #
Romney made a mistake.
He picked a Vice-Presidential candidate that is better, and more telegenic, and more controversial than he is. Like McCain picking Palin or Dole picking Kemp, Romney has risked allowing the camapaign to be more about his VP than him.
Out of the pool of likely VP’s, Pawlenty was the only one more boring and insubstantial than Romney — and as a Governor at least had some claim to executive experience.
It was a bad political move.
Regards,
Feltan
Savrola on 12 Aug 2012 at 2:17 pm #
Paul Ryan is not controversial at all. And he’s a legend only in the mind of Gen-X conservatives.
There was article in the Washington Times, by some dumb whore who writes for Howard Stern and MTV, about how Ryan is the voice of a insurgent conservative generation.
When in fact, he’s just part of a class of mediocre staffers who make their living blowing politicians, until they’re ready to retire, and give them their seats.
Matt Weber on 12 Aug 2012 at 6:48 pm #
My reaction is that Vice President is an irrelevant position that has no real power to do anything, and that the only reason anyone is talking about this is because America is saddled with a large media class that has nothing useful to do with their lives and nothing interesting to talk about.
RedPhillips on 12 Aug 2012 at 11:25 pm #
“America is saddled with a large media class that has nothing useful to do with their lives and nothing interesting to talk about.”
Or they could do their job and investigate the President’s background.
Chris Griffin of Family Guy on 13 Aug 2012 at 4:37 am #
is it lonely up there on your pedestal, Savrola?
tom schnable on 14 Aug 2012 at 7:05 pm #
Romney was beginning to have a problem that surfaced in recent polling numbers. Those who tended to be real conservatives were disenchanted and grumblings of not supporting the GOP candidate by this vital demographic were becoming apparent. The numbers revealed the neo-con Kristolites could not win the election by an appeal to the center without keeping conservatives in the camp. Also, an alliance was beginning to be formed between tea party types and Ron Paul liberty groups to plan for 2016 believing a win by Romney and the neo-cons in this election was a disaster they could not support. With one stroke Romney changed all that with Paul Ryan. He rent the budding alliance that threatened his election hopes by putting in play one of the tea party’s darlings thus solidifying their support. For the neo-cons the resting of control of the GOP out of their hands by the liberty republican crowd would be cut short and perhaps quashed for good with a win in November. This move was more about quashing a movement within the party than anything else. The narrow minded neo-cons have overlooked one thing; the internet and this upcoming generation’s belief in the vision of our founding fathers. Romney/Paul can run but they cannot hide.
tom schnable on 15 Aug 2012 at 2:44 pm #
sorry. i meant Romney/RYAN can run but they cannot hide. So many Pauls can be confusing