Plan B Forum

NORFOLK, Va. -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has picked Congressman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate and will announce the pick on Saturday, a Republican official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Romney would announce Ryan as his choice at an event in Norfolk.

Romney is to say who will join him on the ticket at an event in Norfolk at about 9 a.m. EDT/1300 GMT, ending a months-long search for a running mate to face President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in the Nov. 6 election.

The Romney campaign has been working from a short list of candidates that included Ryan, 42, a Wisconsin lawmaker who chairs the House of Representatives Budget Committee, Ohio Senator Rob Portman and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.

Graduating from Joseph A. Craig High School in Janesville in 1988, Ryan was voted prom king and "Biggest Brown-Noser" by his fellow classmates.

In college, he briefly worked for Oscar Mayer as a Wienermobile driver. He also returned to Camp Manito-wish YMCA, working as a staff member and counselor during his college summer vacations. Ryan went on to graduate from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with a BA in economics and political science in 1992. He also studied at the Washington Semester program at American University and was a member of the Delta Tau Delta social fraternity.

Following his studies, Ryan briefly returned to Wisconsin and worked as a marketing consultant for an earth-moving company run by his relatives.

Rand's body has helped draw political support from GOP-ers like Texas Representative Kevin Brady, who are impressed with his physical prowess over the years. "When I saw Paul Ryan—man, he's gotten in great shape," Brady told Politico in 2009. "He doesn't have a six-pack; he's got, like, a 12-pack." If that's not reason enough for a place on the presidential ticket, what is?

So it elevates the tone of debate, but it will be slightly weird to have a VP pick who is more interesting than the candidate, and whose ideas are the ones being debated. Of course that happened with Sarah Palin, but not in a good way.

So is this a game changer? Can it help Mitt Romney win a race where he is lagging a little behind?

Paul Ryan is not all positive. He has no foreign policy experience, hardly any history outside politics (he was elected at 28) and may not be seen as ready to become commander-in-chief if something should happen to President Romney.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19225718

Although Mitt Romney named him his running mate Saturday, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is still seeking reelection to his House seat in November, according to Ryan’s House campaign manager, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Ryan can run for both his House seat and vice president thanks to a 1968 Wisconsin law. He faces Democrat Rob Zerban, who has raised only about one-quarter of the amount of money Ryan has raised, as of July 25.

If he wins both elections in November, a special election, probably held in the spring, will be required to fill his House seat, according to the Kenosha News. If this happens, who might run for the seat is up in the air, though there has been talk, Kenosha County Republican Party Chairman Matt Augustine said. “All I know is the Republicans have been looking for a while just in case this happened,” he said.

Lord Jim wrote:Long Run, as I thought was the case, like Joe Lieberman and Lloyd Benson before him, Ryan will continue to stand for his seat in Congress while he runs for VP.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics ... t-20120811

dgs49 wrote:Despite the blatant attempts by the Non-Fox Media over the past several days to paint Ryan as Lucifer or Freddie Kruger, the public can see for itself that he is a handsome, articulate, serious candidate - far superior to some of the others whose names were bandied about.

dgs49 wrote:It is ironic and funny when one reads bullshit like above, casting aspersions on Ryan's background. Here is someone who has accomplished great things in office and proven himself as a valuable public servant. As conrasted with the jerk who sits in the Oval Office, who never accomplished anything in his life outside of academe (and his academic accomplishments are VERY doubtful), and was a non-entity in the only elected offices he held prior to the Presidency.

dgs49 wrote:Ryan will move the political dialog away from nonsense like Bain Capital, Mitt's tax returns and Ann Romney's horse to the real issues - and they can't win on the real issues.