Too Good to Be True? Paul Ryan a Serious VP Candidate?

     That's what the buzz is and I want to believe it:

     "There has been a surge in mentions about Rep. Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s potential running mate in recent days, and, as National Review Online’s Robert Costa writes, the chatter about a Romney-Ryan ticket could just be true. “These days, you hear it everywhere – from Republican donors and veteran operatives, and at Capitol Hill watering holes. A few weeks ago, it was a wishful rumor floating in the Beltway ether. Now, sources close to the Romney campaign say it’s for real, that the taciturn former Massachusetts governor is quietly warming to the idea. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the budget king of the GOP, may be Mitt Romney’s veep. ‘Ryan is very highly respected not only by the candidate, but by Romney’s policy shop,’ says Tom Rath, a Romney adviser. ‘Beyond the political relationship, he has a good personal relationship with Romney, and he has been a strong and reliable surrogate since the primary,’” Costa wrote. ” For months, Ryan has been considered a dark horse for the number-two spot. At age 42, he has accomplished much, such as winning seven straight congressional races and authoring his party’s blueprint for entitlement reform. But his lack of executive experience, and his criticism of the Bay State’s health-care program, made his chances look relatively remote. Yet behind the scenes, Ryan’s stock has been steadily rising. Romney, a former Bain Capital consultant who relishes data and metrics, has clicked with the youthful Badger State wonk. They have campaigned together and speak frequently on the phone, comparing notes on policy and strategy. And earlier this year, with Ryan’s blessing, Romney hired three of Ryan’s Budget Committee advisers to help him in Boston.”

     "PARTY INSIDERS SPLIT ON RYAN: The prospect of Rep. Paul Ryan joining the GOP ticket excites one side of the Republican Party wishing Romney would be more forthcoming with the policy change he’d bring to Washington while at the same time, spurs hesitancy among others who are concerned Democrats would slash away at a Romney-Ryan ticket based on the Wisconsin representative’s budget plan, Politico’s Jonathan Martin, Jake Sherman and Maggie Haberman reprort. “As Mitt Romney’s vice presidential selection nears and buzz about Rep. Paul Ryan’s prospects builds, a split is emerging among Republicans about whether the choice of the House Budget chairman and architect of the party’s controversial tax and spending plan would be a daring plus for the ticket or a miscalculation that would turn a close election into a referendum on Medicare,” Martin, Sherman and Haberman wrote. “Ryan advocates, including some of his colleagues and high-profile conservative elites, believe Romney will lose if he doesn’t make a more assertive case for his candidacy and that selecting the 42-year-old wonky golden boy would sound a clarion call to the electorate about the sort of reforms the presumptive GOP nominee wants to bring to Washington. Call them the ‘go bold’ crowd. Their opposites, pragmatic-minded Republican strategists and elected officials, believe that to select Ryan is to hand President Barack Obama’s campaign a twin-edged blade, letting the incumbent slash Romney on the Wisconsin congressman’s Medicare proposal and carve in the challenger a scarlet ‘C’ for the unpopular Congress. This is the cautious corner. Romney and his high command have kept a close hold on the vice presidential selection process, but sources familiar with the candidate’s thinking say Ryan remains under consideration. The two men, both consumers of weighty tomes and papers, have bonded over policy and developed an easy professional rapport this year. Ryan told colleagues in Washington last week, before the House escaped for a month-long recess, that he hadn’t spoken with top Romney aides in about a month though he had submitted paperwork for vice presidential vetting, according to a source close to the Budget chair.”

     http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/veep-beat-paul-ryans-rising-momentum/

     I think the pragmatic conservatives are right which is why I think they'll lose. I can't think of a fight you more relish if you're a Democrat. This is really the bottom line. A Romney victory would likely mean the Ryan budget so let's not beat around the bush.

     Mind you, I can't imagine Romney doing that, his whole campaign, until now, has kept it real light on issues. Is he going to choose the one Veep that will make it all about issues all the time? Did I say I can't imagine that? Yet, maybe he is taken in by Ryan's "wonkishness."

      You have to want this fight if you're a Democrat. If we lose this then we have to face it that the country doesn't agree with us. By all means let's make this a referendum on privatizing Medicare. That's what it is, but Romney has seemed until now to go in the other direction of really downplaying that.