Consider this a follow-up from my earlier post.
Fred Barnes at the Weekly Standard says the GOP primary is closing and goes ahead and throws out a Romney-Ryan ticket for good measure.
…the moment is likely to come quite soon, now that Romney has won an overwhelming victory in the Illinois primary. It would take a collapse of historic proportions for Romney to be denied the nomination.
Could that happen? Sure. But the chances are mighty slim. Rick Santorum would have to whip Romney in the big state primaries—California, New Jersey, New York—and also in states like Maryland, Delaware, Oregon, Connecticut, Wisconsin, and Utah.
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And there may be more than meets the eye to Romney’s alliance with Ryan. It indicates that Romney is ready, assuming he wins the presidential nomination, to join with congressional Republicans to run on a common agenda. Ryan is the most influential thinker in the GOP on domestic and economic issues.
Ryan was persistent in refusing to consider running for president himself in 2012. But vice president? Romney is close to Senator Rob Portman of Ohio and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has often been touted as a strong running mate. Both are from critical states. Portman is a Capitol Hill insider, Rubio an outsider skilled as a speaker. Ryan is both.
Power Line has put together some very good essays on Ryan’s accomplishments and his clear-thinking, results driven career in the House. It isn’t because Steven Hayward and John Hinderaker are bored either. They like most conservatives see the need for the Republicans to go for broke in the general election. A Romney-Ryan ticket would send a very clear message to the voters that not only are the Republicans very serious about turning around the economy, they’ll run the people who know how. I’ll take that over the cult of personality liberals are so fond of embracing. Their way obviously didn’t work.
Following close behind is Jeb Bush who just endorsed Romney this morning and called for the Republican Party to unite behind Romney. This is the kind of presumptive talk needed. As I said in this morning’s earlier post, Republicans need to call an end to this expensive and taxing primary. The entertainment is getting expensive and the vetting is done. All is left is to lineup behind Romney who is the clear winner and leader of the party that will challenge Obama and the democrats come this November.
As much as I really don’t like the idea of a Romney presidency, Paul Ryan as VP would help. He can hold his own with anyone on economic issues. The only problem I have with him is if we don’t need him more in the House to help push the economic agenda through there. It’s an idea, at the very least.