Returning to Earth

The choice of Pail Ryan as Mitt Romney’s running mate will have an immediate positive impact, whatever your political persuasion: It should bring an end to the silly season.

Personally, I am very tired of hearing about Romney’s taxes. If he has legally avoided paying some or all taxes, he has only been taking advantage of the rules of the game (and the tax system is a great big game, as I have observed in previous posts). And if he declines to release his tax returns, that’s his legal right – I wish he had the cojones to just tell his critics to go fish and be done with it. Romney’s personal wealth is not an issue. Real tax reform, however, certainly is, and that’s part of the Ryan agenda.

Again, many of us may not care for the reforms Ryan has suggested as part of his Republican budget plan. But he’s the first since Herman Cain (remember him?) to actually have a plan. He picked up the ball when nobody – including President Obama – would touch it. Both major parties are now compelled, at least for the short term, to deal with issues instead of personalities. And Romney’s choice makes the voters’ choice even clearer in November.

Ryan is conservative on social issues, too, especially abortion, but I don’t recall his beating us over the head with his morality like Santorum. Again, we’re talking about a clear choice here, and that’s good news for the electorate.

When all is said and done, the vice president, if nothing else, is a spare president – the one who takes over if something happens to the boss, and the bottom-line consideration for voters is whether the candidate has the qualifications to do that. In the case of Ryan, the short answer is yes. We’ll see what the media dig up on him as time goes on.

But at least he’s not a Palin. One of those is quite enough.