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Jewish World Review
Aug 13, 2012 / 25 Menachem-Av, 5772
With Ryan, Romney upends the conversation
By
David Shribman
JewishWorldReview.com |
Mitt Romney is a very conventional Republican of a very different age. He has roots in 1960s Republican orthodoxy. His personal style, if not his political instincts, is deeply conservative. He respects authority, precedent and history.
But had he decided to run a conventional Republican challenge against President Barack Obama this fall, he would have flown Saturday to San Diego and announced the identity of his running mate -- someone like Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, all reasonableness and Ivy League but neither Wall Street nor Tea Party -- on the USS Midway.
Instead, Mr. Romney flew east, to Virginia, an important swing state, and stood before the USS Wisconsin and announced that he had selected Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the intellectual wunderkind of the new conservatism. Mr Ryan is no midway selection. He is, to choose a redolent phrase from another era, a choice not an echo.
That was the phrase used to describe Sen. Barry Goldwater in 1964 -- a conservative choice and not an echo of the Republican mainstream that had produced two doomed candidacies by Gov. Thomas E. Dewey of New York and one by Vice President Richard Nixon of California.
Today, no one suggests that Mr. Ryan is a Goldwater figure nor that the new Romney-Ryan ticket is headed toward losing 44 states the way Goldwater did nearly a half-century ago. Mr. Romney is a far stronger candidate than Goldwater, his incumbent rival is far weaker than Lyndon B. Johnson was only 11 months after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and his running mate, Mr. Ryan -- the first House member to join a GOP ticket since Goldwater chose the almost unknown William Miller of Lockport, N.Y. -- is far more accomplished and far more visible than Miller. Indeed, when Goldwater completed his acceptance speech in the Cow Palace in the summer of 1964, a political commentator, astonished at a speech that deplored moderation in the defense of liberty, said, "My gosh, he's going to run as Barry Goldwater."
Mr. Romney's selection of Mr. Ryan does not suggest that the former Massachusetts governor is going to run as Barry Goldwater, but it sure suggests he is not going to run as the Mitt Romney who ran a spirited but unsuccessful challenge to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in 1994 nor as the Mitt Romney who governed Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007, when he championed the health care law that Democrats now say is the model for Obamacare.
This is also a repudiation of the longtime doctrine of presidential politics which stipulates that Republican candidates run to the right in the primaries and caucuses only to steer if not veer to the center for the general election. Mr. Romney has made a sharp right turn with his selection of Mr. Ryan, signaling his calculation that it is more important to motivate his base than to appeal to the center.
This decision reflects, probably shrewdly, the notion that there are dwindling numbers of undecideds in this election and that appealing to them only endangers the Republican faithful or the increasingly fervent Republican right, whose presence at the polls in November is utterly indispensable to Mr. Romney's fortunes.
There are some important and very instructive echoes from 1988 and 2008 in this development.
Almost a quarter century ago, Vice President George H.W. Bush sought to give a youthful tint to his campaign against Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Mass- achusetts by selecting Sen. Dan Quayle of Indiana as his running mate. At 41, Mr. Quayle was a year younger than Mr. Ryan but less at the center of the Reagan-era GOP debate than Mr. Ryan is now.
Four years ago, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was less conventional than Mr. Romney, nonetheless sought to change the dynamic and the nature of the political discourse by choosing a young, attractive darling of the right. That choice, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, was disastrous, as the self-proclaimed maverick soon became a rogue campaigner and swiftly displayed her unreadiness and unsuitability for national office.
Mr. Romney acted Saturday out of the same impulse but chose a running mate of substantially different character, experience and outlook. Like Ms. Palin, he is young and appealing, representing what John Kennedy would have called a new generation of leadership. Mr. Ryan is a fresh face to the vast majority of Americans who don't watch the Sunday interview shows or read conservative blogs.
But along with his new ideas, symbolized by his budget proposals heavy on overhauling entitlements, Mr. Ryan brings real Washington experience and a heavy Capitol credential: his tenure as chairman of the House Budget Committee. Republicans and Democrats alike agree that Mr. Ryan's 2010 budget plan would have, in the phrase Democrats used to disparage it, changed Medicare as we know it. This is a brave choice that offers a glimpse of the map Mr. Romney has chosen for the fall.
First, of course, he intends to contest Wisconsin, where Mr. Obama defeated Mr. McCain by 14 percentage points in 2008 but a place that has become a savage political battleground after the election two years ago of Gov. Scott Walker, who himself departed from Wisconsin Republican orthodoxy by mounting a fight against state workers and their union. In a close race, the state's 10 electoral votes could be crucial if not deciding.
But Mr. Romney also has determined that a conventional race against an incumbent, which might mean running simply as the candidate who is not Mr. Obama, will not do this time around, not with Mr. Obama assailing Mr. Romney and his business record. Instead, with Mr. Ryan on the ticket, the Republicans now offer more than simply an alternative but an entirely separate route out of the nation's economic mess.
In addition, with this one decision, Mr. Romney has taken the focus off his own financial record and placed it squarely on Mr. Obama's economic record -- and on Mr. Ryan's imaginative ideas.
"We're in a different, and dangerous, moment," Mr. Ryan said after being introduced by Mr. Romney. "We're running out of time -- and we can't afford four more years of this."
Few political conversations have the potential to adjust so swiftly and as completely as this one. Already the talk is of what Mr. Ryan believes, not of what Mr. Romney made at Bain Capital. For that reason alone, Mr. Romney may have hit pay dirt.
Comment by clicking here.
David Shribman, a Pulitzer Prize winner in journalism, is executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Previously:
08/06/12 The real Romney remains hidden behind other people's opinions
07/30/12 What summer is for: How August can matter, and how Romney might use it
07/23/12 The Independent son of independent Maine promises to shake up Washington
07/16/12 The Rambler American
07/09/12 The Telstar revolution: Fifty years ago, a 3-foot orb was sent aloft and spawned a new era in communications
07/02/12 It's got only four electoral votes, but Romney and Obama will be fighting for them
06/25/12 A little noted rebellion over a lonely stretch of land helps tell the American story
06/18/12 You're nothing special: Luck is what you make of it . . . and what it makes of you
06/11/12 Anybody can talk authoritatively about the presidential election. Here's how
06/04/12 Candidates love to ally themselves with admired presidents, in sometimes unexpected ways
05/29/12 Americans aren't in a new burst of patriotism but they are in a new burst of appreciation for the military
05/21/12 Inside out: Almost nothing about this year's presidential election conforms to conventional analysis
05/14/12 Lugar grew into an elder statesman, which is why he'll be leaving the Senate
05/07/12 50 years later, MacArthur's farewell to arms continues to inspire
04/30/12 The likability factor: We're going to find out how important it is in these troubled times
04/23/12 Romney's four battles: With the nomination essentially in hand, he must turn to new challenges
04/16/12 For GOPers, expect the frustration to build, not abate
04/09/12 The political battles you cannot see
04/02/12 Romney's roadmap: Doing better in Democratic states may complicate his fall campaign
03/26/12 Romney struggles with same GOP forces his father faced long ago
03/19/12 The writer and the president
03/12/12 Romney could learn from his rivals after Super Tuesday
03/05/12 The GOP race continues, and Republicans continue to grouse about their choices
02/27/12 The turnout threat: when voters vamoose
02/20/12 The Winter's Tale: Republicans are engaged in a 'problem play,' full of psychological, and real, drama
02/13/12 Which Ike to like?
02/08/12 A tale of two elections: Voters today are making their most profound choice since 1912
01/30/12 Whither the GOP establishment?
01/23/12 The Democratic coalition is breaking up
01/09/12 The verdict that wasn't
01/02/12 These are the keys to who will persist
12/19/11 Another Gingrich rebellion
12/12/11 A defining fight for the GOP
12/05/11 A distinct lack of enthusiasm
11/28/11 For GOPers, the winds are beginning to pick up, the horizon is darkening
11/21/11 Today's polarized politics . . . blame FDR and the political scientists
11/11/11The sporting life
11/07/11 Ron Paul, true believer
10/31/11 Why Cain isn't able
10/10/11 GOP starting over
10/03/11 The Forgotten War of 1812
09/26/11 The way we live now
09/19/11 The crisis this time
09/11/11 But what will it mean?
09/05/11 A horse race column: Who might win the GOP nomination and how it might unfold
08/29/11 The vacuum calls
08/22/11 Passion and politics: How Barack Obama and Mitt Romney got crowded into the same dangerous corner
08/15/11 Eleanor's little village
08/08/11 The agony of August
08/01/11 The politics of the impossible: What a country this might be if the political class served the broad interests of the majority
07/25/11 Pennant fever grips 'Burgh
07/18/11 Exemplar of an era
07/11/11 On summer
07/04/11 The soul of the party
06/27/11 What the Secretary said
06/20/11 Romney has big advantages over his rivals, but they will be coming after him
06/06/11 One question each
05/30/11 The 14-week challenge
05/23/11 Delay tactics
05/16/11 Republicans are waiting
05/09/11 Bin Laden is dead. What does it mean?
05/02/11 From nobodies to nominees
04/25/11 The founders left slavery for future generations to settle, and we still haven't fully come to terms with it
04/18/11 From audacious to cautious
04/11/11 Dreaming of space
12/12/10 The GOP takes control
12/06/10 DECEMBER 7
11/29/10 GOP presidential hopefuls already are lining up local supporters in what is now a red state
11/22/10 Burning down the House
11/15/10 Institutions of higher learning are finally beginning to teach important lifeskills
11/04/10 The war has just begun
11/01/10 Echoes of a speech 40 years ago this week still resonate today
10/25/10 50 years ago America chose between two men who were dramatically different --- and eerily similar
© 2011, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Distributed by Universal Uclick, as agent for UFS.
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