Alaska News

Romney team says Paul Ryan pick is no Sarah Palin moment

Well, it's official. Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has chosen U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his 2012 running mate. Ryan's reputation is staunchly conservative, both socially and fiscally, and the latest polls show Romney's campaign losing ground against President Obama.

Which begs the question: Is the Ryan pick Romney's 'Sarah Palin moment'? Is this the moment a Republican candidate with weak appeal among hard-core conservatives tries to fire up a luke-warm voting base with a far-right pick for Veep?

"I don't think that's a fair comparison," one Romney adviser told BuzzFeed." "Paul Ryan has been a leader on these issues for years. He's not an unknown quantity. He may bring the same excitement to conservatives... But this wasn't a base move."

Another senior adviser was less charitable, sarcastically replying via email, "The number one policy wonk in the country... Sarah Palin...?"

Still, though, there may be more to the comparison than the advisers are willing to let on now that Palin's political celebrity has dwindled. Another unnamed adviser's response to the Ryan-Palin comparison contained a buzz-word left over from the 2008 McCain-Palin ticket: "I do think (picking Ryan) is a game-changer," the adviser said, adding, "I think there's going to be a whole swath of the Midwest that looks at this bright, young, very energetic guy, and is won over."

Read more from BuzzFeed, here.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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