Romney - Ryan

Mitt Romney was not my first choice for President.  But I would have supported him regardless of who he picked for VP.  I suspect a lot of folks are like me, the choice of Paul Ryan for VP takes my enthusiasm up several notches.

More than anything else, Ryan seems to be able to articulate the ideas plain old grassroots conservatives hold dear.

This line from his speech at the big rally in Wisconsin caught my ear...

"  ...America is more than just a place ... it's an idea. It's the only country founded on an idea. Our rights come from nature and God, not government."

 Exactly.  Been thinking exactly that whenever I hear progressives bash the idea of "American exceptionalism".  The point is not that Americans are inherently better than anybody else, or that the home team always trumps the away team.  It is the idea of rights based in something transcendent, something higher than government, that creates the possibility of equality, justice, fairness, freedom within limits.  That is the only real hope of transcending race, class and other artificial divisions.  And it is having some degree of consensus around that idea that is a prerequisite for the long-term preservation of our country.

He added:

"We promise equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.  This idea is founded on the principles of liberty, freedom, free enterprise, self-determination and government by consent of the governed."

Positively Reaganesque.  

Ryan's fiscal plan has critics on the left who insist he plans to starve the elderly to benefit the rich, as well as critics on the right who think his plan takes too long to balance the budget and cuts too little.  What cannot be denied, is that Ryan almost singlehandedly has forced the whole country to talk about the debt, deficit, the unsustainabilty of entitlement programs, and Ryan has the acumen to both articulate a fairly conservative view and defend it on his feet.  

It is said this election provides the starkest contrast between the two parties in our nation's history.  I think that is a good thing.  I'd rather see us make an honest choice between clear alternatives than fiddle around with fuzzy, noncommittal, politically calculated candidates that are little more than a conglomeration of polling figures. 

November will be as critical and as vital as any political month in my lifetime.  I guess we'll see soon what direction we're headed.  And I really wonder, if America chooses Obama again, whether the "hope and change" that has left us a 17 trillion dollar debt, 8% unemployment for four years, 1 in 6 in poverty and a third of the nation on government assistance will ever be reversible.