Paul Ryan bagged his biggest idea hunting

Take his expansive new policy book, The Way Forward, Renewing the American Idea. It came to him while sitting in a tiny tree stand, bow hunting for deer in rural Wisconsin.

“A lot of it actually came from that,” the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee said during a lull in his book tour. “It is hard to explain to people who aren’t hunters. It is very peaceful, very cathartic. It really is pretty much the only ‘me time’ I have anymore and it just helps you clear your mind,” he said of his time hunting alone and with his kids.

Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, said that immediately after he and Mitt Romney lost the 2012 election to President Obama, people urged him to get ready for his own presidential bid in 2016.

He didn’t. Instead he took his preteen daughter Liza rifle hunting for deer.

“That morning, Liza bagged a really nice 10-point buck; an accomplishment I had not achieved until well into my 20s. Moments like that really help clear the mind. Soon, the way forward was clear. The things I really care about — advancing good policy and helping our country — hadn’t changed. And it was time to open up a conversation about where we go from here,” he wrote.

Next year, Ryan plans to “lean in” on deciding about a 2016 bid.

For many of his supporters, that’s the beauty of Paul Ryan — he’s an open book. “A lot of the policies I talk about came from my thinking in those moments. It’s just kind of how it is,” he said. “It’s the most peaceful quiet time I get. There’s nothing like watching the woods come alive at dawn or dusk, watching just the wilderness at dawn or dusk. I just love those moments.”

REAGAN’S WILDERNESS YEARS COME INTO VIEW

Noted Ronald Reagan biographer Craig Shirley has a tentative deal with Random House to publish his fourth and possibly most significant book on the Gipper, detailing his “wilderness” years from 1976 to 1980, when Reagan cemented his positive conservatism for his winning White House campaign.

Shirley said that during those four years “Reagan changed completely,” and the period produced “the Reagan we all know.” During that time, Reagan developed his upbeat outlook that gave him a theme to run on instead of just bashing then-President Jimmy Carter.

Wilderness has been in the works for years and complements his other two best-selling Reagan bios, Rendezvous with Destiny, about the winning 1980 campaign, and Reagan’s Revolution, on the losing 1976 effort. He also just completed Last Act, which covers for the first time Reagan’s post-presidency.

Shirley, who heads Shirley & Banister Public Affairs in Alexandria, Va., said the new book probably will be released during the 2016 presidential campaign season. He hopes the eventual Republican candidate cribs heavily from it.

TEAM OBAMA COPIED AMAZON FOR FUNDRAISING

It’s no secret that the 2012 presidential campaign was the most expensive ever. But we’re now learning how Team Obama collected so many checks from so many people.

Michael Slaby, who was the campaign’s chief integration and innovation officer, said he mined companies like Amazon.com for ideas. The biggest: saving the payment information of donors.

Discussing digital campaigning with students from the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, Slaby said the Obama campaign’s Amazon-like system helped snag donations before people had a chance to change their minds.

Building a fast donation system was also key, he said. “Speed matters a lot. We used to joke about making a process as easy — so easy that if people tripped and hit their head on the computer, they’d give us money by mistake. More, ideally.”

BUG VS. BUG: ASIAN WASP TO KILL STINK BUG

The U.S. Department of Agriculture thinks it has found a way to kill stink bugs, which are marching into homes in 41 states to hunker down for the winter.

Tracy Leskey, the USDA research entomologist analyzing the bug, said a combination of native U.S. enemies and the Asian parasitic wasp, the brown marmorated stink bug’s foe back home in China, should do the trick.

She also offered up details from a new survey about the types of houses and buildings stink bugs like most. Their favorite siding colors are brown, green and gray. And they prefer wood siding and buildings. You’ve been warned.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s Washington Secrets columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].