The RTD’s Bart Hinkle makes the case for a Mitt Romney-Ron Paul ticket this November. It’s not as goofy as it sounds:
Picking Paul as his running mate would enable Romney to draft the Texas congressman’s revolutionary army — or at least a good portion of it.
It also would give the ticket something else it has lacked up to this point: spine. Romney is notorious for changing his positions on the issues. Paul is widely admired for sticking to his (mostly) libertarian principles.
Those principles will offend some members of the conservative base — especially when it comes to foreign policy, where Paul sounds more like liberal Democrat Dennis Kucinich than Dick Cheney. Going up against Obama/Biden, Paul would be the only candidate of the four to have opposed the Patriot Act. Nor will many right-wingers approve of Paul’s position on the war on drugs (“a detriment to personal liberty”; “why is it we can’t put into our body whatever we want?”), prostitution (legalize it) or gay marriage (ditto). But they will like his tough stance on immigration, his longstanding opposition to abortion, and his reputation as “Dr. No” for voting against legislation not expressly authorized in the Constitution.
And if Paul is Kucinich on foreign policy, then he is Paul Ryan on federal spending. Make that Ryan on ‘roids: In February, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released a report showing that only one GOP presidential contender’s policy proposals — Paul’s — would actually reduce the deficit. Paul would cut taxes by $5.2 trillion over a 10-year span, but he would slash spending by $7.2 trillion — and eliminate five Cabinet-level departments (Energy, HUD, Commerce, Interior and Education) — in the process.
The policy divisions between Romney and Paul are such that it would be very unlikely we’d ever see them on the same ticket. But with all the speculation that the two have come to some sort of deal or understanding over the last few months, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to see Paul serving in some capacity in a Romney administration.
My preference is outside the administration — send Paul to the Federal Reserve and watch the fur fly.
