Twenty years later Mitt Romney has picked Congressman Paul Ryan and we may have another Dream Team in place. There is no gold medal on the line, however, the stakes are much higher. Our country's future is at stake and these may be the two best guys in the country that can fix what ails us right now.
I believe Paul Ryan is the most consequential person I have seen on the political scene in the last 30 years. We have not had anyone since Ronald Reagan who has had more influence on the direction of the debate in Washington. Ryan almost single-handedly put the budget debate and entitlement reform on the front page. Many have said that you could not broach the subject of entitlement reform in Washington and survive. Ryan did and he has only not survived, it has gotten him to a place where he and Mitt Romney might actually be able to save the country from its fiscal delinquency.
I have written about Ryan several times in these pages. The first was a year and a half ago in The Punter and The Quarterback. I described how I saw Paul Ryan compared to Barack Obama.
To use a football analogy you've got a punter and a quarterback. The punter runs on the field, kicks the ball quickly and hopes that his teammates make the tackle on the return so he doesn't have to get his uniform dirty. The quarterback is determined to take his team to victory. He is not afraid to put everything on the line to do it. If he has to scramble, he won't be sliding to avoid getting tackled. He is all in to win.
The punter-President Barack Obama. The quarterback-House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan.Barack Obama was elected as President of the United States because he said he was going to change Washington. He was going to cut the deficit in half. He was going to be a leader like none we had ever seen before. All he has done is punt, punt punt.
Paul Ryan was just a young Congressman from Wisconsin when he came to Washington. However, he has done nothing but lead, lead, lead. He not only has shown a mastery of the difficult budget issues of our country but he crafted a concrete plan and path to deal with it. He not only took on the tough issue of entitlement reform in that proposal but he has been able to get the entire Republican caucus in the House and Senate to support his approach.
He has persevered even when he has been viciously and unfairly attacked by Democrats. They have run ads showing him throwing grandma over the cliff. They have called him every name in the book. You will hear it all over the next few days. He's radical. He's heartless. Of course, the Democrats have no plan of their own other than to take the country over the cliff. President Obama's budget has not even been able to get one Democrat vote in the Senate in the last two years. The Democratic-controlled Senate has not produced a budget for over 3 years. On the other hand, Ryan's budgets have passed the House in each of the last 2 years.
I said this about Ryan in April, 2011 after he released his 2012 Budget proposal.
Paul Ryan has put a proposal forward that will require the American people to decide what path they want to be on. A path that can provide a way out of the fiscal mess we are in and the potential to put us on a "path to prosperity" as Ryan calls it. Or the current road to ruin that we are currently on. The American people have to decide the future they want. The 2012 election just got much more interesting due to Paul Ryan. That is when we will also find out whether Ryan is the man for the times or simply is a man ahead of the times. No matter which way it goes, I know one thing. Paul Ryan is A MAN! We have not seem many like him in Washington in a long time.Why am I so encouraged by Governor Romney's selection of Ryan and why do I refer to them as the Dream Team?
I am a firm believer in having elections of substance and clear choices for voters. It is only out of these elections that you can get the political power for real change. The choice of Ryan tells me that Romney fully understands what is at stake. To govern effectively you must win decisively. I am not talking about the margin of victory. I am talking about the clarity of the agenda and the contrast in policy with your opponent.
For example, Ronald Reagan ran on clear differences compared to Jimmy Carter. Vastly lower tax rates. Much higher defense spending. He won and was able to change Washington even though he was dealing with a Democratic Congress in his first term and a very small Republican Senate majority.
Barack Obama's failure as President can be traced to the fact that he ran for the office without clearly stating his agenda. In fact, he hid his real agenda. He talked in terms of big themes It was all about hope and change. He did not want to risk saying what he really wanted to do on health care and many other big issues. He took the country places that were a surprise to many- particularly independent voters. This has led to the many political challenges that have hurt him. If you want to really do something in Washington you cannot succeed in the end by hiding it up front. You need to put it out there and get people to vote on it. They are either with you or against you.
The same was true with President Bush's second term election. You knew where he stood on the War on Terror and Iraq. The people voted in 2004 and he won re-election. He never could have moved forward with his surge strategy in Iraq without that previous voter support even though many in his own party and administration doubted him.
The biggest threat to our country today is our budget deficit. The biggest problem in our budget is unsustainable entitlement spending. Everyone knows this but we have seen very few willing to confront it. Our President is the most prominent example. Romney clearly knows what has to be done and he has picked the best person to help him get the job done. This is a dream come true from my perspective.
The other reason I like Ryan is he is equal parts substance and sizzle. He understands policy but also has an engaging personality and charisma. On the other hand, Marco Rubio is more sizzle than substance at this stage of his career and Rob Portman is more substance than sizzle. I think Romney got both in Ryan.
Ryan also has other advantages. At age 42 he should be an attractive candidate for younger voters and has proven that he has been able to draw votes in his blue collar Congressional District in Wisconsin. Ryan's demeanor is such that I think he will also appeal to Independent and women voters. He makes his points in a very earnest, non-confrontational style that I think will surprise a lot of people who don't really know him. They may have heard stories about this horrible Conservative but that narrative will not be consistent with what they see with their own eyes.
There will be a real choice this November. The national nightmare we have been living or the chance to resurrect the American Dream. Who better to carry that message than the Dream Team of 2012?
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