Paul Ryan is hard to read. I agree with a lot of political observers that many of Ryan’s recent moves have given the appearance that he’s throwing his name out there as a possible fallback nominee for the presidency. But he’s been denying he has that intention just like he denied that he’d accept the House gavel after Boehner stepped down. Is he just so bad at politics that he’s unintentionally leading people on? I don’t think so.
Yet, he’s going to hold a press conference at 3:15pm to give us a Shermanesque denial that he has any presidential ambitions.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will definitively rule himself out as a contender to be the GOP presidential nominee in a formal statement before the media Tuesday afternoon.
“He’s going to rule himself out and put this to rest once and for all,” an aide said…
…The speculation has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks after Ryan gave a speech to a roomful of House interns before the House adjourned for its long spring recess last month calling for a more dignified political dialogue.
Ryan’s office — unintentionally, aides say — stoked the flames with the release of a video of the speech that some, including the conservative news site the Drudge Report, interpreted as a campaign advertisement.
And over the nearly three-week House recess, Ryan’s office regularly released photos of him meeting with prominent Middle East leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during his first foreign visit as Speaker.
If the Republicans have difficulty agreeing on a nominee in Cleveland, Ryan could be their savior once again. It might be awkward, though, since the Speaker of the House is the chairman of the convention.
He can deny it all he wants, but he’d make a lot more sense and unite the party a lot more effectively than Mitt Romney or John Kasich.
If I were Ryan I’d want to stay out. I think the Democrats win the Presidency this year. I also believe we are do for another recession, and a bad one at that, if not 2008 bad. Ryan knows this, and is betting on a turn out the bums mood in 2020 as his best shot.
Just spit balling here.
Luke Russet on MSMBC just said the same thing
Ryan expects the GOP to lose this election and
wants to position himself for 2020
Good luck on that. Eddie Munster will have to run against Lex Luthor in 2020, quite possibly. Also, too, how is the Speaker of the House going to run for President? Assuming he still is then.
I agree, although I would add that Ryan almost certainly believes what’s happening now will blow over and a ‘moderate’ will be nominated in 2020. He probably believes 2020 is between himself, Walker, Bush, and Rubio. Ya, right, Cruz is just going to go away.
I don’t see him as Speaker by then. He will be done by 2018.
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He probably believes 2020 is between himself, Walker, Bush, and Rubio.
None of those are going to run again. Lex Luthor + Rick Scott, the present Governor of Florida. In case anyone didn’t know who I meant.
This was satisfying:
Lex Luthor needs to get out of his supervillain lair more often. Maybe he’d be 1% less horrible a human being.
Now would be a good time to talk about Governor Scott’s time as the CEO of Columbia/HCA:
http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2014/mar/03/florida-democratic-party/rick-scott-rick-sc
ott-oversaw-largest-medicare-fra/
Florida Man runs nude thru 7-11, drinks Slurpee straight from the tap, votes stupidly.
He improves his chances by first moving up from the House to the office of governor or senator. Next, consolidate the power and money in the GOP behind him. Then like Nixon and HRC, he’ll too will be inevitable and electable.
Well, the zombie-eyed granny starver just gave a Shermanesque denial, so that fits with your spitball here.
Me, I think that Ryan, as both the Speaker and the head of the Convention, will be damaged in an ongoing way by the need for him and his Party to support the horrible POTUS nominee they are about to put up. History doesn’t show that outcome to be certain, but lots of Americans have been forming their electoral habits in the POTUS elections from 2008 onward, and the Republican base is insisting on goosing November turnout in ways which are not in Ryan’s favor, in 2016 or 2020.
If Ryan runs in ’20, we will be able to remind people of when he stumped for Trump, or whomever his poisonous base is about to push through.
If the GOP elites persist with this game (and they don’t have anyone that can unite the party) that will push Trump and Cruz to unite. Trump wants the status and glory and Cruz wants the power. The Trump/Cruz admin would be like the GWB/Cheney admin. Difference would be the other deal between the two — Trump would only serve for four years and then turn it over to Cruz. Such a ticket may not win, but it would do better than any other ticket the GOP can concoct, including fewer down-ticket losses.
Donald, hire a food tester…
Maybe Ryan wants to bail on his current job before it gets too rough? He’s young, the media thinks he’s savvy, and he’ll blow up Social Security and Medicare with a sincere puppy dog face.
This. He is a tabula rasa for all intents as far as oppo research. He is physically vigorous looking. Tea Party is not disenchanted yet…
Four yrs herding cats in the House would take care of that resume` pretty sharply.
I’m beginning to think that the plan or hope may be to try for an electoral college fail by letting Trump have the GOP nomination, running someone else as a GOP rump third party candidate (Cruz? Romney? Ryan? Now, probably not Ryan…) and subsequently electing the president in Congress. Ryan’s shadow campaign and now denial fits well with that suspicion as he would be the natural choice for Congress to make.
The problem with your theory is it’s hard to see how it prevents Democrats from getting to 270. If anything, it splits the ticket on the Republican side and perhaps pushes some states toward the Democratic nominee.
If the Republicans run someone as an ostensible third party candidate, it will be a concession that the election is lost and a desperate attempt to save down-ticket contests (under the assumption that both R and I voters would predominantly support the R when there’s no I on the ballot).
That the aspirations of establishment Republicans are vested in the shallow vessel of Paul Ryan’s political personality seems a fitting and ignominious end to a narrow, venal and selfish ethos. He’s a charlatan whose entire ‘career’, other than his white-hot ambition, is a figment of the Beltway’s imagination.
Don’t throw me into that briar patch!