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My last post noted how House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) is using this year’s federal budget debate to line himself up to be the 2016 Republican presidential nominee if the GOP convention turns to someone other than the current candidates.
That post explained about how Ryan is letting the budget debate unfold in a way that appeals directly to the Republican voters that have been most active during the primaries and caucuses and will be most important at the convention. He’s allowing the House to consider a budget resolution that is nothing more than a platform statement with a list of the red meat issues – including repealing Obamacare – that appeals to the GOP’s uber conservatives even though it has no chance of being adopted.
But that was two weeks ago. For all those who think Ryan’s use of the budget debate is irrelevant and refuse to see that he is visibly and unambiguously positioning himself to be the person a deadlocked Republican convention turns to as its nominee, consider the many very presidential candidate things he did just last week.
The Speech
At the same time he was appealing to the uber conservatives through the budget debate, Ryan reached out to the GOP’s moderates and to independent voters who lean Republican by making a speech that belittled the current state of American politics. He denounced the type of campaigning Donald Trump and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) have been doing and made it clear that he preferred (i.e., would conduct) a campaign that is more substantive and issue oriented with none of the hatred and personal attacks the current candidates are using. It was a condemnation of Trump and Cruz without actually condemning Trump and Cruz.
It was a remarkably safe speech to make to an audience – congressional interns – who were almost certain to have entered the room with stars in their eyes. None were going to be critical of Ryan or to ask him truly tough or embarrassing questions. No one was going to be anything but totally polite or heckle anything he said. It was the perfect campaign event.
How much different would it have been had Ryan made that same speech outside the Washington beltway to an audience of Trump or Cruz supporters?
The Apology
Ryan used his speech to congressional interns to take back one of the most damaging messages from his failed 2012 vice presidential campaign, that people who received benefits from the federal government were “takers.” During the campaign he had contrasted the takers to “makers,” that is, to the people who paid the taxes that funded those programs.
Ryan said he was “wrong.” Even though he had used this message repeatedly and with what seemed to be apparent sincerity and determination in 2012, he said last week that he had done more study about the situation since then and had realized that had been wrong four years ago.
Ryan’s apology was reminiscent of former Michigan Governor George Romney saying on television as he was running for the Republican presidential nomination in 1967 that his previous support for the Vietnam war had been wrong because he had been “brainwashed” by the generals.
The Trip
Before he spoke to the interns, Ryan announced at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that he was going to Israel over Congress’ Easter recess.
The political symbolism of this announcement is impossible to miss. This will this be Ryan’s first trip abroad as speaker. For a U.S. elected official who’s known almost entirely for domestic policy initiatives, it will demonstrate at least an interest in foreign affairs.
And, the trip is to a country that’s almost a required campaign stop for U.S. politicians who are running for president. Even Ben Carson and Donald Trump announced they would be traveling to Israel.
Put this all together. First, Ryan uses the federal budget debate to show solidarity with the uber conservatives. Then he appeals to moderates and independents with a high-profile speech that makes it sound like he’s, unlike the other candidates, is on the side of the angels. He then tells lower-income and poor voters that they’re not the takers he used to say they were. And he appealed directly to Jewish voters by visiting Israel now, that is, before the Republican convention.
