Was Paul Ryan a good VP pick for Mitt Romney?
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  Was Paul Ryan a good VP pick for Mitt Romney?
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Question: Was Paul Ryan a good VP pick for Mitt Romney?
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Yes
 
#2
No
 
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Author Topic: Was Paul Ryan a good VP pick for Mitt Romney?  (Read 23164 times)
Suburbia
bronz4141
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« on: April 08, 2014, 12:17:38 PM »

I know it's 2014, and the 2012 election was two years ago, and I know that Romney-Ryan lost the election, but will historians rate Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as a good vice presidential pick? When he was first chosen, he was hailed as "the son of the Midwest", the "next big thing", and today, he has diminished his profile. Was Ryan a good pick or not?
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Mordecai
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« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2014, 12:35:15 PM »
« Edited: April 08, 2014, 12:41:18 PM by Mordecai »


No. I remember reading in Double Down that the Obama camp were puzzled by the Ryan pick because he was an obviously bad choice due to his link to House Republicans, but I don't think Romney had very many credible alternatives and Ryan was seen as the person most compatible with Romney. There was a list of eleven (Kelly Ayotte, Chris Christie, John Cornyn, Mitch Daniels, Bill Frist, Mike Huckabee, Bob McDonnell, Tim Pawlenty, Rob Portman, Marco Rubio, and Paul Ryan) that was then reduced to a shortlist of five (Christie, Pawlenty, Portman, Rubio and Ryan). Of those five, only Portman and Rubio seem like good choices to me.
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Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook
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« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2014, 12:36:50 PM »

He wasn't that bad in a "rising star" sense, but considering that Edwards and Palin were also rising stars he probably should have picked someone else.
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IceSpear
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« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2014, 12:49:44 PM »

Honestly, I don't see what he brought to the ticket at all. From what I can tell, picking him had 3 objectives:

a) Mollify the conservative base over Romney's "RINO"ness
Verdict: Failed. Most conservatives had already accepted they were going to vote for Romney by late August anyway, and of the very few that didn't, Ryan didn't change their decision to not vote for "the UnChristian Mormon" anyway.

b) Help in the swing state Wisconsin
Verdict: Failed. Wisconsin voted pretty much exactly how you'd expect it to without a Wisconsinite on the ticket.

c) Crush Joe Biden in the debate with his "wonkishness"
Verdict: Failed. Speaks for itself. Biden easily could've been exploited and made to look like an idiot in that debate, but Ryan wasn't up to the task. He got taken to the woodshed instead.
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Niemeyerite
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« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2014, 01:37:05 PM »

I think he was a better pick that Palin, Cheney, Kemp and Quayle, but not a "good" one. I decided to vote "Yes" because he wasn't bad either and the problem of the GOP in 2012 was Mitt Romney, not Paul Ryan.
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NHI
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« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2014, 01:50:26 PM »

Terrible pick. Did nothing for the ticket.
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Guntaker
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« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2014, 01:54:17 PM »

Would've preferred McDonnell, heck, maybe Cornyn or Ayotte probably would be better, but he wasn't as bad as some say he is.
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I Will Not Be Wrong
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« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2014, 04:23:46 PM »

Rubio would have been the best.
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Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee
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« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2014, 05:05:41 PM »

He needed someone who could bring energy without risking the Palin critique about not being ready for the job. THe best one who could hold that down would be Condi and I don't buy the notion that she would have provoked a right wing revolt. Rubio would be risk obviously of course, but he wouldn't have gotten embarrased the way Palin did.

I really don't see the benefit afforded by Portman. The man is a first term Senator with low numbers and from the part of the state where Romney was already going to do well in (Ubber Republican Cincy burbs and surrounding rural counties). Chances are Portman would have done the same for Romney in OH that Ryan did in Wisconsin. Romney needed help in Cleveland and Toledo metro areas and Portman wouldn't have provided any assistance there.

If you want a bland Senator, the better pick would have been North Carolina's Richard Burr, who whilst also somewhat anonymous, he woudl have been a two termer who won reelection by double digits; had a record on military and defense issues, which is a nice compliment to Romney's economic focus; has a personal connection to Virginia; and finally a record of collaboration in the Senate.
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ElectionsGuy
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« Reply #9 on: April 08, 2014, 06:10:01 PM »

He was surprisingly ineffective and terrible. I thought we was an attractive pick for the conservative base but he ended up being bland and a talking point politician. But its not like there were that many better choices.
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« Reply #10 on: April 08, 2014, 06:12:59 PM »

I remember being surprised and disappointed that he was chosen, I had wanted Rubio.
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« Reply #11 on: April 08, 2014, 08:42:39 PM »

He didn't do much good, but I don't think he could have made it any worse. Portman or Rubio were the best choices, as already noted.
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RR1997
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« Reply #12 on: April 08, 2014, 09:26:02 PM »

No, he was too extreme, and he couldn't have swung Wisconsin to Romney, because he has never been  elected to a statewide office in Wisconsin.
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SteveRogers
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« Reply #13 on: April 09, 2014, 12:34:19 AM »

A puzzlingly bad VP pick for Romney because the Romney campaign clearly never intended to deploy him effectively. Why pick the policy wonk whose known for crunching numbers and pointing at graphs if you're just going to muzzle him by making him keep everything vague as possible?
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moderatevoter
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« Reply #14 on: April 09, 2014, 01:55:59 AM »

I was not a fan of this pick at all. I remember my friend texted me when he heard the news, and I didn't believe him.

Someone brought this up earlier, but I actually thought Bob McDonnell would have been a fantastic pick until the Ultrasound Bill in the General Assembly. He was a very popular Governor (his approval rating was mid-60% for a long time), he had campaigned on downplaying social issues to focus more on the economy and jobs, and he would have pacified the base without embarrassing the ticket. I know plenty of Democrats here who had very little to no objection with him. I think he could have at least provided a small bump in Virginia.

After McDonnell went downhill, I thought Rubio should have been the pick -- this was still when Rubio's stock was high. It would have been a fairly exciting pick, and probably not destructive a la Palin. Rubio probably helps some in Florida, and Rubio might have been better in that debate against Biden.

The Ryan pick was just bad for a variety of reasons. I know he was trying to make inroads in the Midwest, but Ryan has never won a statewide race. Not to mention, the association with House Republicans and the Ryan Budget was an easy campaign target for Democrats. I remember reading that the Ryan pick scared off many Senior voters in Florida, especially. I also need to add that I think Ryan is frankly very awkward and not particularly charismatic. He reminds me of that nerd in high school who would know an ungodly amount of facts about something, and would constantly drone on about it, to the point where people didn't really understand what his point was.

All in all, it wouldn't have been a perfect pick either, but I think I would have picked Rubio, and then Portman or Pawlenty.
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jfern
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« Reply #15 on: April 09, 2014, 02:03:13 AM »
« Edited: April 09, 2014, 02:05:01 AM by ○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└ »

Well Romney would have lost regardless. Now I think Gore / Graham could have won Florida by an unstealable margin and therefore the election. Lieberman was a piss poor choice by Gore.
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moderatevoter
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« Reply #16 on: April 09, 2014, 02:10:03 AM »

Well Romney would have lost regardless. Now I think Gore / Graham could have won Florida by an unstealable margin and therefore the election. Lieberman was a piss poor choice by Gore.

Yeah, I agree with you that he would have lost regardless. I just think Ryan was a bad pick from the start.
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Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers
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« Reply #17 on: April 09, 2014, 10:04:15 AM »

Portman/ Romney, Gore/Graham or Kerry/Warner would have been stronger tickets.
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Mister Mets
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« Reply #18 on: April 09, 2014, 03:29:37 PM »

I think so.

Romney did show significant improvement in Wisconsin from McCain's 2008 results, so the pick likely helped there.

The main conversation about the ticket was that they got along well, so there wasn't much drama. And Ryan didn't make any serious gaffes, or face any major scandals. The top task of a veep is to do no harm, and Ryan succeeded there.
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Guntaker
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« Reply #19 on: April 09, 2014, 03:30:56 PM »

I think so.

Romney did show significant improvement in Wisconsin from McCain's 2008 results, so the pick likely helped there.

The main conversation about the ticket was that they got along well, so there wasn't much drama. And Ryan didn't make any serious gaffes, or face any major scandals. The top task of a veep is to do no harm, and Ryan succeeded there.
Well, he failed to win a Debate against Biden when the time was ripe, and the Medicare cuts sure came up, and the Soup Kitchen incident.
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IceSpear
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« Reply #20 on: April 09, 2014, 03:36:00 PM »

Romney did show significant improvement in Wisconsin from McCain's 2008 results, so the pick likely helped there.

It wasn't significant when factoring in the nationwide swing.
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RogueBeaver
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« Reply #21 on: April 09, 2014, 03:43:11 PM »

Yes, for the same reasons I gave 2 years ago. Harping on WI is silly.
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pbrower2a
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« Reply #22 on: April 09, 2014, 11:20:20 PM »

He had never won a statewide election in Wisconsin, and by October he was defending his House seat.
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Kalwejt
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« Reply #23 on: April 10, 2014, 07:22:44 AM »

Terrible pick. Did nothing for the ticket.

I agree. As Congressman, Ryan lacked a statewise base. Expecting him to bring Wisconsin would be like expecting Michele Bachmann to bring Minnesota.

Also, the party base was already fired up and rallying behind Romney. He should have picked someone to broad the ticket appeal instead.
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MATTROSE94
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« Reply #24 on: April 10, 2014, 09:04:48 AM »

Paul Ryan wasn't that great of a choice mostly due to his lack of charisma and controversies over his budget plan. In retrospect, Rob Portman or John Thune might have been the best choices for Mitt Romney's running-mate.
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