Paul Ryan

After Mitt Romney announced that Congressman Paul D. Ryan was his running mate (on a Saturday, during the Olympics) there were a lot of raised eyebrows, and a lot of sports and game metaphors. One I heard was doubling down, since Ryan is most famous for his draconian budget, and the Republicans, as we know, talk a lot about cutting the budget, although they usually increase it.

I think the more apt phrase is the hail Mary, a desperation pass at the end of a football game. Or, keeping with cards, perhaps "all in" is the phrase, when a player shoves all his chips into the pot, in a win-or-go-home hand.

Ryan, at 42, is a hero of the hard right, and reports were earlier in the week that the Tea Party element of the party was pushing Romney to choose him. It's impossible to imagine what goes on in Romney's mind--I don't think he knows most of the time. So onecan't help but feel this choice was made for him, and that Romney is a puppet on the hand of a larger force, one that hasn't been able to fully embrace the once-moderate governor of Massachusetts, but forced his hand to make him more acceptable to fire-breathing conservatives.

As many writers pointed, this is the choice of a man who knows he is losing. Ryan offers nothing to the ticket that would woo undecided voters. He's meat for the carnivores to savor, but independents aren't likely to be swayed by him. For one thing, he's best known for advocating a privatization of Medicare, which basically ensures that Obama will win Florida. He's also a career politician (Romney said that presidents should be required to have run a business--Ryan has not). Ryan has no particular foreign policy experience. He is in a state that Obama is handily ahead in the polls (Ryan's unfavorables in Wisconsin aren't much lower than his favorables). What he seems to have done for the race is galvanize some sluggish parts of the left wing, like Hollywood.

So what is the rationale for Romney picking him? I can't figure it out. Rob Portman might have helped in Ohio, and Marco Rubio might have helped in Florida and, as a Latino, would have been historic. One could see  the Ryan choice as bold, if you think it's bold to wander into traffic wearing a blindfold. In some ways, the Sarah Palin pick made more sense--at least, as a woman, she made the race more dynamic. Ryan seems to be just another white guy in a suit.

People don't know much about Ryan now, but already the left wing is defining him as a deficit hawk who is taking away grandma's Medicare and a devotee of Ayn Rand, whose philosophy basically can be summed up as "selfishness is a virtue." Ryan also presented the recent budget, which was roundly unpopular. So unpopular that moments after selecting Ryan, Romney distanced himself from it.

The choice of Ryan, whether its reckless or calculating, bold or cowardly, seems to be meaningless. I can't imagine him earning one vote that was previously intended for Obama. Perhaps Romney, knowing he's doomed, has decided to prepare for an "I told you so" in November, blaming his loss on the Tea Party. Ryan, unless he is a gaffe machine, would seem to be groomed now to be the right's candidate in 2016.