Cross-posted from The Nation
Of course Paul Ryan wants to be Mitt Romney's vice presidential running mate.
The hyper-ambitious political careerist -- who
has spent his entire adult life as a Congressional aide, think-tank
hanger-on and House member -- is looking for a road up. And he is sly
enough to recognize that, like Dick Cheney with George Bush, he could be
more than just a vice president in the administration of so bumbling a
character as Romney.
Ryan figured Romney out months ago.
The two men bonded during the Wisconsin presidential primary campaign
in late March and early April. They got on so well that Ryan was
playing April Fool's Day jokes
on the Republican front-runner -- giving Romney a rousing introduction
before the candidate came from behind a curtain to find the room where
he had expected to be greeted by a crowd of supporters was empty.
Romney loves the prep-school fraternity that he has with Ryan, and
every indication is that the former governor would be delighted to add
the House Budget Committee chairman to his ticket.
The conversations have occurred. The vetting has been completed. It could happen. And, indeed, as the time for choosing nears, the Ryan buzz has been amplified -- mainly by the Wisconsin congressman's friends at The Weekly Standard,
which has editorialized enthusiastically on behalf of his selection,
and other conservative media outlets. But, now, even ABC's "Veep Beat"
headlines "Paul Ryan's Rising Momentum."
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There's just one problem.
Vice presidential nominees are supposed to help tickets, not hurt them.
Romney clearly needs help. Just back from a disastrous trip to Europe
and the Middle East, mired in controversies about the "vulture
capitalism" he practiced at Bain Capital and his refusal to release tax
returns that his dad -- former Michigan governor and 1968 Republican
presidential contender George Romney -- said contenders for the Oval Office
had a a responsibility to share with the voters, Romney could use a
boost.
But Ryan would be a burden, not a booster, for a Romney-led ticket.
Like Romney, Ryan is a son of privilege who has little real-world
experience or understanding. He presents well on Sunday morning talk
shows and in the rarified confines of Washington think tanks and dinners
with his constituents -- the Masters of the Universe on Wall Street -- but
his record in Congress and the policies he now promotes are political
albatrosses.
Some Republicans, perhaps even Romney, do not get this.
But the Obama campaign recognized, correctly, that Ryan's positioning
of himself as the point man on behalf of an austerity that would remake
America as a dramatically weaker and more dysfunctional country makes
him the most vulnerable of prominent Republicans.
Ryan scares people who live outside the "bubble" of a modern
conservative movement that thinks the wealthiest country in the world is
"broke" and that Ayn Rand is an literary and economic seer.
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John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written the Online Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress.
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