NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Friday, August 10th, 2012

BREAKING: Wisconsin’s Paul Ryan said to be Mitt Romney’s vice presidential pick

Break­ing news this evening: A num­ber of media out­lets are report­ing that the 2012 Repub­li­can tick­et has now been set with pre­sump­tive pres­i­den­tial nom­i­nee Mitt Rom­ney’s selec­tion of U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Paul Ryan to be his run­ning mate. Ryan, who rep­re­sents Wis­con­sin’s 1st Dis­trict and chairs the House Com­mit­tee on Bud­get, is well-liked by move­ment and estab­lish­ment con­ser­v­a­tives alike.

Ryan is the author of the epony­mous (and infa­mous) Ryan bud­get, which would end Medicare as we know it and crip­ple many oth­er vital pub­lic ser­vices that are vital to Amer­i­ca’s eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty and well-being.

Rom­ney report­ed­ly set­tled on Ryan after rul­ing out sev­er­al oth­er names on his short list, includ­ing Sen­a­tor Mar­co Rubio of Flori­da, for­mer Gov­er­nor Tim Paw­len­ty of Min­neso­ta, and Sen­a­tor Rob Port­man of Ohio.

Rom­ney is set to make the announce­ment ear­ly tomor­row morn­ing in Nor­folk, Vir­ginia, with the USS Wis­con­sin as a back­drop. The Wis­con­sin is an Iowa-class bat­tle­ship that served in World War II, the Kore­an War, and even the First Gulf War before it was decom­mis­sioned and turned into a muse­um ship. The announce­ment is expect­ed at 8:45 AM Eastern/5:45 AM Pacific.

The Rom­ney cam­paign report­ed­ly has sent a pri­vate jet from Boston to Ryan’s home­town of Janesville, Wis­con­sin to fer­ry Rom­ney’s V.P. pick to Norfolk.

Judg­ing by the ear­ly reac­tion on Twit­ter, strate­gists for Barack Oba­ma are rel­ish­ing the prospect of being able to attach the Ryan bud­get to Mitt Rom­ney like an anvil. And pro­gres­sive activists seem about as enthused about a Romney/Ryan tick­et as con­ser­v­a­tives have been pri­or to tonight’s break­ing news.

If it’s real­ly Ryan, Rom­ney will have picked one of the only peo­ple who could have had an impact in the race. But, not the way he wants.

— Bill Bur­ton (@billburton716) August 11, 2012

Who’s call­ing the shots? The base sends Mitt his march­ing orders on VP. nyti.ms/MCbyjD

— David Axel­rod (@davidaxelrod) August 10, 2012

As a Wis­con­si­nite, I can con­fi­dent­ly say that Paul Ryan is a mani­ac mas­querad­ing as a rea­son­able man.

— nilay patel (@reckless) August 11, 2012

Paul Ryan is the one VP pick who can unite lib­er­al and con­ser­v­a­tive Amer­i­ca. #Coupon­sCoupon­sCoupons

— Rachel Mad­dow MSNBC (@maddow) August 11, 2012

Paul Ryan was a speech­writer for Bob Dole’s VP choice, Jack Kemp, in 1996. So apt because Mitt Rom­ney is Bob Dole with a $50M IRA.

— Matt Orte­ga (@MattOrtega) August 11, 2012

Rom­ney’s announce­ment comes on a week­end packed with sport­ing events, includ­ing the PGA Tour and the final two days of the Olympics. Rom­ney is set to embark on a mul­ti-state bus tour fol­low­ing tomor­row morn­ing’s announce­ment — pos­si­bly with Ryan along­side him.

Adjacent posts

  • Enjoyed what you just read? Make a donation


    Thank you for read­ing The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate, the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute’s jour­nal of world, nation­al, and local politics.

    Found­ed in March of 2004, The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate has been help­ing peo­ple through­out the Pacif­ic North­west and beyond make sense of cur­rent events with rig­or­ous analy­sis and thought-pro­vok­ing com­men­tary for more than fif­teen years. The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate is fund­ed by read­ers like you and trust­ed spon­sors. We don’t run ads or pub­lish con­tent in exchange for money.

    Help us keep The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate edi­to­ri­al­ly inde­pen­dent and freely avail­able to all by becom­ing a mem­ber of the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute today. Or make a dona­tion to sus­tain our essen­tial research and advo­ca­cy journalism.

    Your con­tri­bu­tion will allow us to con­tin­ue bring­ing you fea­tures like Last Week In Con­gress, live cov­er­age of events like Net­roots Nation or the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion, and reviews of books and doc­u­men­tary films.

    Become an NPI mem­ber Make a one-time donation

  • NPI’s essential research and advocacy is sponsored by: