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By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter
Matt Kittle
Vice President Paul Ryan?
Haven’t you heard? It’s all the talk. All the rage. The buzz among political chatter boxes everywhere .
There’s a federal deficit load of speculation surrounding the Mitt Romney VP sweepstakes – and Wisconsin 1st District Congressman and fiscal conservative superstar Paul Ryan is the prospect du jour.
And the jabbering has been ceaseless.
Why a Romney-Ryan ticket would work. Why it wouldn’t. How does Ryan stack up against other candidates on the GOP VP short list, such as Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, or Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell? Who’s going to break it to Sarah Palin that her VP dreams were pretty much one and done?
Here’s a question no one seems to be asking: Why the hell would Ryan want it?
Why would a well-spoken, federal budget-writing savant want a know-nothing, do-nothing job like vice president.
Furthermore, why would conservatives want the one person who arguably has done more to change the dialogue about U.S. debt and deficits than anyone in D.C. to sit on the sidelines, away from the place that he can effect the most change?
With no disrespect to George M. Dallas, Hannibal Hamlin, Garret A. Hobart (nice mustache, by the way) or J. Danforth Quayle (OK, certainly a little disrespect), the American vice president is about as meaningful to American politics as BMX racing is to the Summer Olympics.
Sure, Millard Fillmore, Chester A. Arthur and Lyndon Johnson can all attest to the only and only important role VPs play.
But let’s face it. Mitt’s in pretty good shape. Doesn’t he have like 53 biologically perfect kids? Then again, I’ve got three, and I have the sneaking suspicion they are all conspiring to kill me.
I don’t see Ryan claiming to have invented Facebook, or misspelling avocado for that matter.
As far as I can tell from the current vice president, the congressman who writes op-eds for the Wall Street Journal would have to dumb it down quite a bit.
Instead of working to reform Medicare, Ryan would have to assure the world that Romney, indeed, “has a big stick.”
His language would have to get a lot saltier, too.
Just before President Romeny signs the bill repealing Obamacare, VP Ryan would have to be caught on a live CBS mic telling Mitt, “This is a big F-ing deal!”
Maybe to get into the spirit of it all, Ryan could tell a radio interviewer that Romney is the first mainstream Mormon who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. A real storybook man, as it were.
But that just doesn’t seem like the Paul Ryan Wisconsin and the world has come to know.
Now, President Paul Ryan – that has a ring to it.
Until then, we need people like Ryan in the places they can do the most good, in the places where the most bad is being done in the name of taxpayers.
