Learning From Losers: The GOP Turns to Paul Ryan for Their Obama Strategy

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 12:24 am


“Rep. Paul Ryan to the rescue.”

Who better to give the Republican Party advice about how to beat Obama in the upcoming debt ceiling and budgetary fight than the guy whose ticket just lost to Obama. Enter Republican savior and alleged policy wonk, Paul Ryan.

In a Politico article titled “Paul Ryan Gives GOP Leaders Advice on Battling Obama”, Paul Ryan details to the press his Big Ideas on how to win. Among them, according to five sources present, he warns Republicans not to overpromise and underdeliver. They should “control expectations about what they can extract from Obama, and then people will be pleased with the result.”

“We have to also recognize the realities of divided government that we have,” Ryan told reporters gathered here in a golf course clubhouse. “And so while we aspire to give the country a very specific and clear vision about what we think is the right way to go on the major big issues of the time, we have to at the same time recognize the divided government moment that we have and the fiscal deadlines that are approaching, what those involve and then how we’re going to proceed forward.”

What Paul Ryan is really saying is that they can’t win against Obama, and the only way they can “win” the public relations war is to tamp down the expectations of their base.

But wait! He has a plan to save the party and the country. Yes, it’s another Ryan budget promise. “He said he will author a budget that will show how Republicans would cut away at the national deficit if they controlled all of D.C. And he also suggested that Republicans might try to tie tax reform to one of the upcoming fiscal debates.”

No word on whether or not Ryan will do the math on this budget, or if he will be too busy leading the Republican Party from the trenches of the House in their Great Battle against President Obama.

The hook here is “We can’t deliver unless you give us all of the power.” The only problem with that promise and premise is that the last few times they were in power, Republicans ran up the deficit using the exact same economic ideology that Ryan and House Republicans espouse.

Ryan’s new shiny budget is not going to address our current problems, but rather, show you all what they would do if only they could. For more on that, you can see the last election, when the American public rejected Republican economics. Or, you can travel even further back into George W. Bush’s or Ronald Reagan’s terms in office to see just what might be in store for the nation.

Ryan will have to forgive the nation for its skepticism given that Reagan holds the record for raising the debt ceiling the most times since 1960.

The failed Vice Presidential candidate fresh off of his resounding loss is going to lead Republicans into victory. They tried this after 2008 with another wacky failed VP pick, and that didn’t turn out so well.

If the 2012 election did anything for Paul Ryan, it exposed his weakness as a “numbers guy”, as well as making the public aware of his “immoral” budget and his extremist beliefs that women aren’t capable of making their own medical decisions. So this is the guy who is going to save the Republican Party from their failed ideology and their extremist ideas.

This is the guy who knows how to beat Obama, but chose not to during the election. Or is it that he blames Mitt Romney for the defeat. This is so 2008.

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Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here. Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump. Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Connect with Sarah on Post,  Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.

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