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By Steve Deace

Some on the Right Not Excited About Paul Ryan

It seems as if most conservatives around the country are somewhere between excited Paul Ryan is on Mitt Romney’s ticket, to wishing he was the nominee instead. But there are a couple of notable exceptions. Richard Viguerie is one of the founders of the modern conservative movement, he says Ryan “is a good man but not a game changer.”  Viguerie goes on to say, “While Ryan gets a lot of credit among fiscal conservatives for having the gumption to propose a plan to balance the budget, his plan takes 28 years to do so. It is hardly the kind of radical change in Washington’s culture of spend, borrow and tax that Democrats make it out to be, and conservatives think is required to save our country from bankruptcy. To lock-up the support of those 4 million independents and right-of-center voters who walked away from the Republicans in 2006, but came back in the Tea Party wave in 2010, Governor Romney needed to make a bold choice. Paul Ryan is a good choice, but not a bold choice.”

A month ago, Joseph Farah at World Net Daily was urging conservatives to vote for Romney, despite writing in 2010 that he’d “vote for Satan” before voting for Romney. But Farah is echoing Viguerie’s sentiments when he says Romney selecting Ryan is a signal “that Romney does not really intend to do a 180 from the policies of the last 12 years that have brought America to the brink of economic disaster. Of course, I never expected Romney would be that kind of president, but the selection of Ryan, a favorite of many so-called “economic conservatives,” suggests a Romney administration will not make any effort to return Washington to the constitutional imperative of “limited government.”

The truth is when you look at Ryan’s record he’s actually very, very good on the social issues and not nearly as good as most assume on the fiscal issues. For example, Ryan is just one of six current House Republicans to vote for TARP, the auto industry bailout, raising the debt ceiling, and all the continuing resolutions funding Obamacare and the rest of the Obama Regime’s schemes. Because of that, some more libertarian-minded Ron Paul voters around the country contacting me to voice their displeasure with the pick, but sometimes I wonder if these folks wouldn’t have been satisfied with any pick whose last name wasn’t Paul.

Then there is the loser brigade, otherwise known as the vast majority of Republican strategists and consultants inside the Beltway. Politico says it spoke with over three dozen of them for this story, and they all think Ryan will kill Romney’s chances to win the presidency for the reasons many are excited about him.

Ryan Budget Plan Gets Unlikely Ally

Erskine Bowles gave as a speech at the University of North Carolina on September 8th, 2011. During that speech Bowles referred to Rep. Paul Ryan’s controversial (to the left) budget plan as “sensible, honest, and serious.” So who is Erskine Bowles and why does his opinion of the Republican nominee for vice president’s budget plan matter? President Obama appointed Bowles as the national co-chair to his National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in 2010, and he was President Clinton’s White House Chief of Staff in 1997-98. Think that might end up in a Romney-Ryan commercial?

Deconstructing Propaganda 

One of my mentors is long-time radio personality at legendary 1040 WHO Jan Mickelson, who taught me how to deconstruct your opponent’s argument much more effectively than ranting (which I believe is my spiritual gift). In this blog, Mickelson displays a deft touch in deconstructing the leftist propagandists who wrongly claim these United States were founded as secular nation. This is definitely worth a read.

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