Good News on Former VP Candidate Paul Ryan – The Press and the Public are Catching On to Him

Sorry Paul – Scrutiny Just Does Not Work in Your Favor

Now that Mitt Romney has gone back to doing the things he really wanted to do in his life, making money and condescending to working men and women, the focus turns to his running mate, Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.  Mr. Ryan gained his fame as a so-called budget guru, a serious man who presented a serious budget plan.  The fact that the numbers did not add up and that the plan was bogus was irrelevant. The press thought this was great and heaped high praise on the Congressman.

So Mr. Ryan reprised his act in March of 2013, putting out another bogus budget.  This time the press and the public were not fooled, there were a few giggles and the debate has largely turned away from Mr. Ryan.  This was only right for a plan that, for example,  on taxes consisted of (1) cut taxes on the wealthy and (2) assume that revenues stay the same.  The result, a report by Politico on how Mr. Ryan has been removed from the public eye.

He seems to have fallen entirely off the radar of early state Republicans. Democrats bring up his name with more zeal than do people in his own party. And his footprint at the Conservative Political Action Conference was so faint that his being an afterthought was itself an afterthought.

The official word of course is that Mr. Ryan has now immersed himself in budget work, which is probably true.  It is very hard, maybe impossible, to come up with a fictitious plan that will carry enough credibility so that it is not laughed out of existence the minute it is release.  And of course Mr. Ryan’s disappearance may not be permanent.

But the press is now enamored with Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, and hoping that Jeb Bush will be a serious contender.  So here is how Mr. Ryan’s Presidential hopes stand at this time.

In conversations with scores of Republicans in Washington and beyond, it’s striking how little organic support or even interest there is for a Ryan presidential bid so soon after Mitt Romney elevated the Wisconsin wonk to the highest levels of national political stardom. Open-ended questions about who is drawing early attention don’t even include a pro forma mention of last year’s popular vice presidential nominee.

Ok, we can all live with that.