The Romney-Ryan ticket
My internet has been down for most of the day (defective router), but I’ve been able to check in with the internet often enough to know that there’s a general sense of delight across the conservative blogosphere now that Romney has announced that he’s chosen Paul Ryan as his running mate. Terresa, at Noisy Room, has a wonderful, representative post.
As is Terresa, I too am optimistic. I’ve never made any secret about my liking and respect for Ryan. I think he’s an incredibly smart, principled man, who is well able to articulate both his principles and the details of the policies underlying his principles. The Leftosphere is in a tizzy, with the funniest post coming from Ryan Lizza, who querulously complains that Ryan has neither private sector nor Washington D.C. experience:
For one thing, Ryan has no significant private-sector experience. Besides summer jobs working at McDonald’s or at his family’s construction company, or waiting tables as a young Washington staffer, Ryan has none of the business-world experience Romney frequently touts as essential for governing. In the run-up to his first campaign for Congress, in 1998, that gap was enough of a concern for Ryan that he briefly became a “marketing consultant” at the family business, an obvious bit of résumé puffing.
But Ryan’s Washington experience is also light, at least for a potential President—which, after all, is the main job description of a Vice-President. Ryan has worked as a think-tank staffer and Congressman, but he’s never been in charge of a large organization, and he has little experience with foreign policy. Given how Sarah Palin was criticized for her lack of such experience, I’m surprised that Romney would pick someone whose ability to immediately step into the top job is open to question.
I was actually tempted to comment, internet struggles notwithstanding, but then saw that hundreds of conservatives got there before I did. Here are some representative comments:
Oh, please, Paul Ryan was in Congress when Obama was still doing choom in high school, and RYAN doesn’t have enough experience?
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House Budget Chairman not quite enough experience in govt? Over 10 years in the House, not quite enough? Better by far than 2 years in the Senate, most of which were spent in campaigning for president. Construction work not as valuable as Community Agitating?? Biased, much???
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By writing articles such as this one, how do reporters expect the average person to take them seriously or even believe them a little bit? Don’t reporters have to have some sort of education to get a job? After reading this article a question comes to mind concerning the present day POTUS. Using the writers criteria, is the current POTUS up to the job? Prior to being elected did the current POTUS have enough experience in the private sector to satisfy the writer? This is all very naussiating to me considering the current POTUS is at best an amateur and I’m being polite. What this does show is the writers affinity for unexperienced democrats running for office vs. highly experienced republican candidates who actually ran several successful businesses, only to focus on the running mates private sector resume. What a disgraceful piece of journalism once again from someone who has a horse in the race!
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Paul Ryan is 2nd on the Romney ticket. Romney is the guy with the private sector and true leadership experience. Now let’s take a look at the other side. Where is the private sector experience? None whatsoever. Where is the true leadership experience? Again, next to none, even if we count Obama’s failed 3.5 years in office.
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“For one thing, Ryan has no significant private-sector experience.” Interesting piece of analogy, the current president has no experience whatsoever in foreign policy save living in a foreign country for a few years of his formative years. But, the bigger picture, the economy, Obama has not shown he can read a budget never-mind the fact he has not produced an acceptable one in four years. Ryan, can run rings around Obama not only on the economy but, one can reasonably assume that the world is looking for economic leadership more than any other kind of leadership. Ryan, also has more business experience than Joe Biden and on the foreign policy side, Biden has been proved wrong on every decision he ever espoused. Better to have Ryan’s intelligence to make decisions than Biden’s failed advise. Obama’s choices for Cabinet decisions, backed by czars, is also a provable failure; while, Mitt’s track record of finding the best and brightest MBA graduates and his method of management is beyond question. I would not expect the liberal media to have a good word for any vice-president that Romney would name but, it is time to survey your own abilities for choosing potential leaders, before you too join the ranks of the unemployed.
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Darn that Paul Ryan, with his lack of business experience, whatever will we do???? Wait!!! Mitt has business experience…..wait! wait!!! and Paul Ryan has government experience!!! One might serve and help us in one area and also the other with extensive, dedicated, expert, determination!! Who knew????
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I literally feel dumber after having read this piece. Are you serious? Paul Ryan is more qualified to be President than Barack Obama was to be VP in 2008. Is reality really that hard to connect with?
There are more — lots more — where that came from. Equally enjoyable, because of the amusement quotient, are the posts from outraged Leftists, horrified that the dreaded Tea Partiers have invaded their sacred precincts with facts:
Yes, I think there has been a coordinated “attack” here by some sort of Romney supporters. The initial wave of illiterate and mean-spirited criticisms is just not what one would expect of regular New Yorker readers.
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[And if you can tolerate every word having initial caps and generally illiterate writing:] President Obama Has More Experience Than Romney And Ryan And That’s Actually Being The President For Almost 4 Years. Mitt Romney Has No Foreign Policy Experience And His VP Pick Also Has No Foreign Policy Experience And Yes President Obama Had No Foreign Policy Experience But He Picked Joe Biden As His VP Pick Who Does. President Obama Has Had A Lot Of Wins In Foreign Policy That Mitt Romney Can’t Touch. The Only Thing Ryan Is Known For Is His Budget Plan That Will End Medicare As We Know It And From The Polls I Saw On The Subject The American People Were Against This Budget And This Pick Will Hurt Romney. How Can A Republican Presidential Canidate With NO Foreign Policy Experience Pick A VP With NO Foreign Policy Experience, LOL. I Read Someone Wrote That Joe Biden Was A Draft Dodger For The Vietnam War And I Want To Say That They Got That Wrong, Mitt Romney Was The Draft Dodger Not Joe Biden. Mitt Romney Supported The Draft But When It Came Time For Him To Go He Went To Paris France.
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I never realized there were so many hard right types who believe in the lunacy of deficit-reduction-through-austerity-with-a-budget-plan-that-increases-the-deficit. Incidentally, Obama had many years of real world experience as a law firm associate, law school lecturer, and Illinois state senator representing a Chicago district. Illinois is a much more sophisticated state than Wisconsin, anyway.
There’s more, much more, with 341 comments last I saw, most lambasting Lizza’s bizarre retreat from reality. I wonder how long average Americans, including unthinking, knee-jerk liberals will be able to stand the cognitive dissonance. I know that I hit the cognitive dissonance wall after 9/11, faced reality, and switched parties. Free at last, free at last, Thank the Lord, I’m free at last.
One other point about cognitive dissonance. Anyone who was around for the 1992 elections remembers how a gasping, excited media assured us that Bill Clinton was exquisitely prepared to be president, not because he was the governor a notoriously corrupt state (sorry, Arkansas, but that was the case when he was governor), but because he was a “wonk.” Clinton, we were told, loved policy, which made him a sure leader, one who could solve the nation’s problems. In Ryan, we have a policy wonk squared, but one who also happens to be a decent, moral man, with a passion for the Constitution. Ooooh! Scary.
Proving once again his management gifts, Mitt Romney made an excellent pick for running mate. He wasn’t afraid to pick someone who is a fighter and who might outshine him. Unlike the narcissistic Obama, Romney is an extremely secure man, who understands that his leadership is enhanced, not diminished, when he surrounds himself by the best people. I’m really, really excited here. Ryan excites the base, pleases all but the most RINO-ish in the establishment, and promises to leave a drooling Biden slobbering in the dust during the VP debate — something that promises to be the most entertaining moment, ever, in American political history.
One more thing, he may not be a great orator, but Ryan never loses his cool, never loses his facts, and isn’t afraid to speak his mind.
Note: Ace found the Lizza article as amusing, and insanely stupid, as I did.
