Red NoVA

The ticket is complete. Mitt Romney has tapped Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan to be his running mate. This is an excellent choice which conservatives from all across the spectrum should cheer.

Congressman Ryan fits well into Romney’s message that the economy is the number one issue because Ryan is an expert on the federal budget. The best place to look for solutions to our economic woes is to find the right places in the federal budget to make drastic spending cuts. Very few could claim to understand the minutia of the federal budget as well as Ryan. A concern among independents and undecided voters is that Romney is not offering enough details. Well that concern should be cleared up because Ryan has offered a ton of details on how to trim the federal budget. Here is a link to his budget proposal. He knows where the fat is and Romney intends to cut it out. They are a solid team.

In an earlier post I expressed my desires for Romney to pick someone who is safe, boring, relatively unknown, and of course, Clorox clean. That description describes Ryan, who is definitely a clean nerd with little national name recognition. This poindexter started sifting through budgets as a teenager, earned humble blue collar credentials working at McDonald’s and driving the Oscar Meyer hotdog car, learned how a bill becomes a law working as a staffer on Capitol Hill, ran for Congress at a Doogie Howser like age of 27, and rose through the ranks of the House leadership to become Chairman of the House Budget Committee. Exactly how safe a pick he is will be determined as the campaign process plays out and Ryan is placed further and further under the national microscope.

The left has quickly condemned Ryan as a radical who will end Medicare as we know it. The Ds want you to believe that Ryan is a Tea Party extremist. He is not at all. Ryan is a wonk before he is anything else. His rhetoric on the campaign trail will be much more subdued than Sarah Palin’s lambasting style, but as any running mate is supposed to do, expect Ryan to offer more fire from the stump than the presidential candidate will, with Ryan doing so using the professional zeal of a pundit who is comfortable with his impressive qualifications. And just think about the “shellacking” Joe Biden  will take in their only debate, scheduled for October 11.

Call me out of touch but I believe that a vice president should earn his salary. Biden hasn’t. Should Romney and Ryan be successful this November I hope the new Veep enjoys the same kind of influence in the White House on the budget as Dick Cheney had over National Security and Defense issues. Ryan is suited to handle that kind of responsibility, he has always earned his pay check so don’t expect another Biden like ceremonial do-nothing kind of Veep. Ryan is ready to work.

So here is your new bumper sticker: America needs some R&R- Vote Romney/Ryan 2012.