The Wall Street Journal wants Paul Ryan for Vice President...

[WI_DEM]

(hardly a surprise)...


Well, The Wall Street Journal didn't literally endorse Paul Ryan for president. But in their editorial endorsing him to be Mitt Romney's vice president, it's pretty clear who they wish were their nominee:

The case for Mr. Ryan is that he best exemplifies the nature and stakes of this election. More than any other politician, the House Budget Chairman has defined those stakes well as a generational choice about the role of government and whether America will once again become a growth economy or sink into interest-group dominated decline.
Against the advice of every Beltway bedwetter, he has put entitlement reform at the center of the public agenda—before it becomes a crisis that requires savage cuts. And he has done so as part of a larger vision that stresses tax reform for faster growth, spending restraint to prevent a Greek-like budget fate, and a Jack Kemp-like belief in opportunity for all. He represents the GOP's new generation of reformers that includes such Governors as Louisiana's Bobby Jindal and New Jersey's Chris Christie.

As important, Mr. Ryan can make his case in a reasonable and unthreatening way. He doesn't get mad, or at least he doesn't show it. Like Reagan, he has a basic cheerfulness and Midwestern equanimity.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/09/1118242/-WSJ-endorses-Paul-Ryan-for-president

I actually do think it will be Ryan.

[nichomachus]

1. Ryan is too ambitious by half

He doesn't want to play second fiddle to an empty suit like Romney and Romney certainly would want an ambitious thug like Ryan nipping at his heels and running his own show behind the scenes.

[democrat_patriot]

2. I could see serious heat being applied and Ryan and Romney's teams butting heads.

[nichomachus]

6. You probably shouldn't use Ryan, Romney and "butt heads" in the same sentence n/t

[JHB]

8. True that. It's doubly redundant. n/t

[catbyte]

3. Don't they think it's at least a little problemmatic that the Catholic

Church called the"Marvelous" Ryan Budget an immoral document?

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. It would if ...

the general electorate cared/paid attention to facts.

[1StrongBlackMan]

4. Ryan would be a reasonable choice ...

because, as the OP notes, Ryan presents as reasonable and unthreatening, even as everything he says is unreasonable and threatening to an extreme.

And given the general population's penchant for attaching to image rather than substance and fancy sounding stuff over facts, Ryan could pull a lot of the "I haven't been paying attention and I don't understand what he just said; but he looked and sounded good saying it" crowd.

And I'm afraid that crowd is all that remains un-committed.

[railsback]

7. Political suicide

Ryan clearly has ambitions for bigger and better things. Being tied to the worst liar and most secretive presidential candidate in history isn't exactly something you want on your resume, especially when this psychotic Right wing take over of the GOP is about to run its course.