Paul Ryan Shuts Down Idea Of New GOP Candidate: ‘I Don’t See How That Can Happen’

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by Josh Feldman | 3:15 pm, February 19th, 2012

» 8 comments

On Meet the Press today, Congressman Paul Ryan talked payroll tax cuts and much else, but David Gregory shifted the conversation to ask Ryan a more political question about the race for the presidency on his side of the aisle. If Mitt Romney ends up losing the Michigan primary to Rick Santorum and is no longer the moderate conservative who has the best chance against President Obama, does Ryan think another person should get into the race?

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The short answer? No. The long answer?

“I don’t see how that can happen, it’s just too late, I think. And, first of all, it’s February, this things have a way of taking time. I assume this is going to drag out well into April, so we’ll be relevant here in Wisconsin. And I just, I have a hard time seeing who else can get in here at this late date.”

Watch the video below, courtesy of NBC:

David Gregory, Paul Ryan, primary, Republicans

Anonymous

Asky Palin, she might jump right in.
Anonymous

Ryan doesn’t “see how that can happen”????? Is he an idiot? There are plenty in his party talking about it right now who can totally see how it can happen and are making plans for when it does. Idiot.
Anonymous

Ryan is right. Part of becoming a bona fide candidate is winning the trust of the people. The republican party can not even agree on what a candidate should look like. Winning an election is all about winning the vote of the independent. There is no time to bring in a fresh face and expect to win the independent vote. A Palin or another Bush would send the independents running.
Anonymous

Desperation makes people do funny things and if Mitt loses Michigan or doesn’t pull off a decisive victory I think many in the GOP will start to worry.

Mitt’s claim to fame is that he can beat the incumbent but he comes across as cardboard cutout, Santorum’s is more authentic but his problem would be winning the general election, which is the ultimate and most important goal in politics these days.

Given the lack of credible candidates as a whole this time, I think most in the GOP view this election as a lost cause and are using it as a test tube to see what issues that play to the majority of voters so they will be better positioned for 2016
Anonymous

WHY VOTE PAUL RYAN? WHAT WRONG WITH FROTH? FROTH SAD :(
shonangreg

I think you’re right about many Republicans viewing this election as a lost cause. Obama, for all their wailing and name-calling, is better and more predictable than anything they have in the running.

It is telling. That Obama could be so bad but still be better than Romney, Santorum, etc. means the Republican vocal supporters just been shouting empty insults at the President for nearly four years now. Even on balancing the budget Obama is going to do a better job than any of them (exempting Ron Paul and Gary Johnson…)
Hugo Daun

“…we’ll be relevant here in Wisconsin.”

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

WISCONSIN!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Anonymous

So if Mitt doesn’t win then the GOP has to support Santorum. Deal with it. Chucking out Santorum just because he’s not the candidate the establishment wanted to win seems an awful lot like overturning a chess table half way through the game just because you are losing. If the GOP establishment tries to restart the race and run their own preferred moderate candidate just because the party as a whole rejected Romney, I don’t think that will sit well with the base.