Bill Bennett suggested on his radio show this morning that the Romney-Ryan campaign (or someone else) cut an ad to make famous these remarks (delivered a year ago at the University of North Carolina) about Paul Ryan by Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles:
The following clip would make a nice 30-second ad:
“Have any of you all met Paul Ryan? We should get him to come to the university. I’m telling you this guy is amazing. … He is honest, he is straightforward, he is sincere. And the budget that he came forward with is just like Paul Ryan. It is a sensible, straightforward, serious budget and it cut the budget deficit just like we did, by $4 trillion. … The president as you remember, came out with a budget and I don’t think anybody took that budget very seriously. The Senate voted against it 97 to nothing.”
Getting this ad up in swing states with a real buy behind it would do two things: It would go a long way to inoculate the ticket against the attacks on the Ryan budget; just as important, it would introduce Paul Ryan to voters as an impressive man and public servant. I think conventional wisdom doesn’t yet appreciate how much of a positive Ryan can be for the ticket. Publicizing Bowles’s comments could help shape the public’s view of Ryan—and improve the public’s view of Mitt Romney, the man who picked him.
