Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: The Next Steps

Today, Mitt Romney formally announced Paul Ryan as his running-mate in the 2012 presidential election. This is an interesting decision on many fronts, underscoring the choice between fiscal change and spending reductions, and Keynesian policies and spending increases from who we choose as President this year.

Actually, before the news leaked last night about Ryan receiving the nod, I would have liked to have seen Marco Rubio get the nomination for Vice President. My feeling is the Republicans need to to a better job at embracing and showing the nation that they want minority figures taking top positions in government. Latinos are going to start making a large part of the voting block, and the Republicans will need their help. I thought about it some more since then, though, and I think leaving Rubio in the Senate is key for many reasons, which may help Republicans take the next steps. Some of those key reasons include:

• Needing Senators there that can finally pass a budget!
• Rubio has some campaign issues he is dealing with that could cause some problems.
• Paul Ryan is from Wisconsin, where the State has shown some guts in passing austerity measures.
• But mostly, and I think Republicans should start mulling this over, Rubio could be made the next Senate Majority Leader if Republicans take the Senate. If they don't, I think they ought to put him in the Minority Leader spot.

By putting Rubio in such a position, I think the Republicans would gain a fair amount by showing they are committed to letting Latinos and other minorities take on key roles, which is important to a large cross-section of American voters.

We will be researching Paul Ryan over the next while, so stay tuned to find out more about this man who's political career got started at a very young age.