The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Paul Ryan in the American Spectator

Posted on | August 13, 2012 | 15 Comments

When you think about qualifications as vice president, the first thing you have to ask is, “Have they written for the American Spectator?”

Paul Ryan’s byline first appeared in the American Spectator in July 2009, and today he’s back with a column slamming Obama’s “you didn’t build that” rhetoric:

President Obama recently made a stunning remark about business owners in America’s free enterprise economy. After dismissing the hard work and ingenuity of successful individuals, the president said, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Who? Ultimately, the government.
Yet this was only the latest version of the president’s four-year disparagement of American entrepreneurialism. In 2008, then-candidate Obama said he intended to “spread the wealth around” — not his own wealth through voluntary transactions, of course, but the earnings belonging to American families through coercive redistribution. In April 2009, he claimed that the founding principles on which America was built are too weak to withstand 21st century pressures. He called our free economy a house built upon sand, destroyed when the financial storm of 2008 hit. America must be reconstructed, he asserted, upon a “new foundation” of “pillars” hewn from the solid rock of big government.
The agenda he promoted demonstrated in a practical way what his rhetoric meant. He pushed unprecedented stimulus spending, a government-driven health care overhaul, further distortions in the U.S. financial sector, an expensive cap-and-trade system to restrict American energy, and more. His transformative proposals were based on a vision of a government-centered society that conflicts with the foundational principles of freedom and equality rooted in our Declaration of Independence. To support his expansive new vision of government without limits, the administration sent Congress four massive annual budgets that called for crushing levels of debt. The Democrat-controlled Senate, cognizant of the political peril of voting for such reckless spending, taxes, and new debt, gave up on budgeting altogether. The U.S. Senate unanimously rejected Obama’s budgets, without passing any budget of its own for over three years.
The failed leadership and the dismal results from a president of such great promise have been disappointing. . . .

Read the whole thing.

And, by the way, while I am not a candidate for the vice-presidency — doggone that “vetting” process! — I am still a correspondent for the American Spectator, and have my own column there today.

Category: American Spectator, Election 2012, Paul Ryan

Comments

15 Responses to “Paul Ryan in the American Spectator”

  1. Kyle_Kiernan
    August 13th, 2012 @ 9:20 am

    In the Obama gaffe speech, nobody seems to catch what I think is the most glaring admission of the whole thing.  He says “…this unbelievable American system.”  I think most of us automatically assume that this is said in the sense of  thinking the American system is awe inspiring and magnificent because thats the way we think.  I think he says it in the sense of he doesn’t believe in it because he thinks it doesn’t work.  It just gets lost in the shuffle because “you didn’t build that” is so damn juicy and fun to play with.

  2. Bob Belvedere
    August 13th, 2012 @ 9:25 am

    What about Vanuatu?

  3. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    August 13th, 2012 @ 9:53 am

    Who knew Stacy McCain is John Frum?  John Frum lives!   

  4. Bob Belvedere
    August 13th, 2012 @ 10:17 am

    As long as you don’t call him ‘David Frum’…

  5. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    August 13th, 2012 @ 10:19 am

    That would be downright mean!  

  6. JeffS
    August 13th, 2012 @ 11:15 am

     Stacy needs to set his sights higher under a Romney administration.  Say, Ambassador to Greece?

  7. Red
    August 13th, 2012 @ 11:24 am

    It’s the same with his campaign slogans–”hope’ and “change’. Those words by themselves are pretty ambiguous. Could mean anything. Thankfully more folks are paying attention to the rhetoric this time around. Hopefully the glamour (hype) has faded and the reality remains unshakable all the way to the voting booths this November.

  8. Red
    August 13th, 2012 @ 11:25 am

    Eh, I’m not feeling that one. They’s broke.

  9. rosalie
    August 13th, 2012 @ 11:55 am

    Michelle just recently said that her husband  is not a superhero.   They certainly gave us that impression three plus years ago.  I wonder if he can still walk on water?

  10. Quartermaster
    August 13th, 2012 @ 12:12 pm

    There is a rumor on the street that RSM was being vetted for VP, but then Mittens was shown the pic of RSM in a Speedo.

    The Interwebz is forever.

  11. Wombat_socho
    August 13th, 2012 @ 1:11 pm

     I, too, am curious whether you’ll be decamping to the South Seas after Romney’s inauguration to take up the heavy burdens of our embassy to the Ripablik blong Vanuatu.

  12. JeffS
    August 13th, 2012 @ 1:17 pm

     Think of the example he’ll present for the Greeks!  Especially while wearing a Speedo swimsuit.

  13. Red
    August 13th, 2012 @ 2:19 pm

    Um, no.

  14. Red
    August 13th, 2012 @ 2:20 pm

    The Masked Magician already debunked that illusion so I guess Oblamer’s going to have to come up with a new trick.

  15. Paul Ryan: My Thoughts | Nathan Martin
    August 13th, 2012 @ 9:25 pm

    […] has been a lot said on this subject: The Other McCain, Matt Lewis, Da Tech Guy, and Dan […]