Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s meteoric
rise in the polls to near-frontrunner status (Rasmussen today had Perry 29
percent, Romney 18 percent and Bachmann 13 percent nationally), the fluidity of
the Republican presidential race has convinced the D.C. establishment that this
thing is wide open and there is room for anyone to get in. Could it be Palin,
who resents her recent fall from grace? Could it be Giuliani,
who polls well against Obama? Well, the scuttlebutt today was about Rep. Paul
Ryan (R-WI) who is allegedly rethinking his opposition to a run in 2012.
The conservative publication, The
Weekly Standard, has been outspoken in its efforts to draft Paul Ryan to run for
president in 2012 for months. Today, they proudly report that they are making
progress:
“He’s coming
around,” a Republican source close to Ryan told the Weekly Standard. “With Paul, it’s more about obligation than
opportunity,” another Republican told The
Standard. “He is determined to have the 2012 election be about the big
things. If that means he has to run, he’s open to it.”
Perhaps the most convincing evidence that Ryan is strongly
considering the option is an interview he conducted with a talk radio host in
Milwaukee. In that interview, he was asked if he thought he saw any candidate
in the most recent Republican debate articulate a case for entitlement reform
as a means of deficit reduction: “I didn’t see it last night,” said a resigned
sounding Ryan. “I haven’t seen it to date. We’ll see. People’s campaigns evolve
– they get better. So we’ll see.”
Ryan can have the appeal to the Republican electorate and
the independents that people in the Beltway really want to see. Ryan is
pro-life and pro-national defense. Ryan is intimately familiar with budgetary
issues as chairman of the House Budget Committee. He is
from a battleground swing state that has proven impervious to Democratic
efforts to overturn the 2010 elections.
To his detriment, he has lead on the debt issue and it has
proven unpopular. However, he can effectively make the case that someone has to
lead and that is not coming from the White House (President Obama released a
statement over the weekend that a comprehensive jobs bill will be coming in
September) which could mute Democratic criticism that the “Path to Prosperity” budget
is tantamount to “throwing
granny off the cliff.”
He will also encounter the problem of stature--no one since Garfield has
made it to the White House from the House of Representatives, though
many have tried.
Ryan’s appeal may be entirely too establishment for the Tea
Party folks, but it is early to determine that now. For the record, Ryan’s
office has spent the day denying that the Congressman has changed his mind
about a run at the White House but that is only true until it is not.
Should Ryan run or would that only damage his current level
of influence?
Want
to connect more with fellow Politic-Ologists? Join the discussion over on My.Ology.com
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment!