Politico...
The temptation of
Paul Ryan
By Jonathan Allen
5/22/11
On the rebound from Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ decision to sit out of
the 2012 presidential race, the GOP cognoscenti has turned to an
unlikely figure as their next-best hope: House Budget Committee
Chairman Paul Ryan.
Ryan drafted the polarizing GOP plan that redefines Medicare as a
voucher program — a proposal that both sets the conservative
establishment’s heart aflutter and jeopardizes the significant gains
Republicans made in the House last year.
Forget that his plan to rewrite the Medicare program is a high-stakes
political gamble that could cost Republicans dearly at the polls in
2012, whether or not he’s on the ticket. Forget that Ryan says he’s not
interested. Forget that no House member has won the presidency since
James Garfield in 1880.
The unofficial draft Paul Ryan movement has nevertheless begun in
earnest, with the GOP establishment’s push sure to shift into overdrive
this week.
“Now, obviously, we have to start looking, and I was just saying this
morning, maybe it’s time to start drafting Paul Ryan,” former House
Majority Leader and FreedomWorks chief Dick Armey told CNN’s “State of
the Union” on Sunday.
Several hours earlier, at 6:33 a.m., William Kristol blogged on The
Weekly Standard’s Website that there’s a better than even chance that
Ryan will throw his hat in the ring.
Pressure is certain to build on Ryan because many of his fellow
Republicans simply don’t see a thoroughbred in the current field.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Texas
Gov. Rick Perry all have their cheering sections in Republican circles,
and it’s still possible that any of them will jump in.
But will Ryan — young, handsome, articulate and committed — succumb to
the temptation? Probably not.
He all but shut the door on a 2012 presidential run during an interview
on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
“I’m not running for president,” he told David Gregory. “It’s not my
plan. My plan is to be a good chairman of the House Budget Committee
and fight for the fiscal sanity of this nation. … You never know what
opportunities present themselves way down the road — I’m not talking
about right now. And I want to focus on fixing the fiscal problems of
this country.”
Those who would see wiggle room in Ryan’s remarks certainly do see it —
whether that means a bid for president or vice president.
Ryan declined an interview for this story through his spokesman, Conor
Sweeney. Jon Kraushar, a political consultant for Ryan, House Majority
Leader Eric Cantor and former Vice President Dick Cheney, said he
wouldn’t discuss his client.
It’s easy to see why Ryan has been able to cultivate a cult following
among conservatives: A protege of the late Jack Kemp, Ryan has long
concerned himself with applying conservative principles to the
intricacies of public policy. He’s been unafraid to develop and embrace
controversial prescriptions that would cut down on politically popular
entitlement programs, even though he represents a politically
competitive district that he first won at the age of 28 in 1998.
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