Wisconsin Congressman and deficit hawk Paul Ryan endorsed Mitt Romney today, as a NBC/Marist poll showed the Massachusetts governor is leading Rick Santorum 40 percent to 33 percent in the state. The House Budget Committee Chairman and rising GOP star said on "Fox and Friends" Friday morning that the long primary could become "counterproductive." "We need to coalesce as conservatives around Mitt Romney," Ryan said. "The longer we drag it out the harder it is to win in November." "I am convinced that Mitt Romney has the skills, the tenacity, the principles, the courage and the integrity to do what it takes to get America back on track," he said. Romney said he was "grateful" for the nod in a statement. Ryan's nod for Romney follows high-profile endorsements from Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former President George H.W. Bush earlier this week. The Wisconsin primary is Tuesday.
[Paul Ryan] said he would "consider" running for vice president on the Republican ticket this fall, after indicating that he expects Mitt Romney to win the Republican nomination. Chris Wallace asked Ryan how he would respond if asked to run for vice president. "I would have to consider it," Ryan answered on Fox News Sunday, "but it's not something I'm even thinking about right now because right -- I think our job in Congress is pretty important. And what we believe we owe the country is, if we don't like the direction the president is taking us, which we don't, we owe them a specific sharp contrast and a different path that they can select in November." "Real quickly, the White House sounds like they've already made the ticket," Wallace observed. "You heard David Plouffe talking about the Romney-Ryan budget." Ryan accepted the hypothetical. "We're going to give the country a choice," he said. Now, we're going to show the country, here's how you balance the budget, pay off the debt, grow the economy and stop all the cronyism in Washington, picking winners and losers. Ryan seemed to predict Romney would be the Republican nominee as well. I don't know if I'd say he has it wrapped up," Ryan said of Romney, adding that the former Massachusetts governor "is becoming the prohibitive front runner."
Ryan would be a good running mate. He's one of the more consistently small government Republicans. He doesn't tend to get sidetracked by the evangelical agenda.
