Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) told the Tampa Bay Times Sunday during a stop in Brandon, Florida, to promote his new book that likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is “very beatable.”
“She’s very formidable,” Ryan said of Clinton. “She’ll raise a lot money, she has a lot of name ID. But I think Hillary Clinton is very beatable because a Hillary Clinton presidency is basically the same thing as an Obama third term. I don’t think she’ll be able to shake that.”
Clinton has been attempting to distance herself from Obama in advance of her probable run, admitting recently that Obamacare needs to be fixed and criticizing the president’s foreign policy strategy.
Paul Ryan was visiting the Books-A-Million store Sunday to promote his book “The Way Forward.”
Though Ryan insists he will not make the decision to run for president or not until 2015, the former vice presidential candidate is an obvious contender among possible Republican presidential candidates for 2016.
However, Ryan certainly doesn’t have his claws out when it comes to his potential primary opponents, at least the ones in Florida. The congressman called former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) “[the] absolutely cream of the crop, top-tier leaders who would make great candidates or presidents.”
In addition to talking 2016, Ryan also voiced his advice for the Republican party from this day forward.
“We need to be that happy warrior inclusive party that appeals to people based on their common humanity, based on their aspirations, based on opportunity and growth,” explained Ryan. “That means we have to take this message everywhere to all communities and show people why our ideas are better for them and their families.”
Echoing an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” last month, Ryan also stressed the need for our country to rethink the way it deals with poverty.
“We have an obligation to have smarter and more effective ways of fighting poverty given that we are losing the war on poverty 50 years into it,” asserted Ryan. “The point is to attack the status quo and to have a different approach to fighting poverty and totally reorienting the federal government’s role.”
