With one op-ed piece in the WSJ, Sarah Palin has made a lasting impact on the dynamic of the upcoming Republican presidential race — even if she doesn’t run. (Though I think she will.) By strongly endorsing Rep. Paul Ryan’s outstanding Roadmap for America’s Future, Palin has set a floor for how radical and sweeping an agenda the 2012 candidates can offer. Anyone offering less will look timid and inconsequential and most un-Tea Party-esque. One of the big knocks against Ryan’s plan is that few of his colleagues are supporting it. Now the most high-profile Republican in America has given it her seal of approval. The Ryan Roadmap is quickly becoming the de facto GOP economic platform. And if Palin does decide to run, she immediately starts out with a specific and coherent agenda. Candidates beware: Bullet points and platitudes aren’t going to cut it.
Fresh off her pronouncements on the Fed’s “quantitative easing” and federal aid to the states, Sarah Palin now adds the deficit and Medicare to her Potemkin façade of policy expertise. This is more than a little ironic for the propagator of the “death panels” myth. As it turns out, Ryan’s plan would inevitably lead to the rationing of the Medicare program on which 46 million American seniors now depend.
Hoping to lead the party that tried to block Medicare in the 1960′s and gut it in the 1990′s, Palin is endorsing Ryan’s proposal to cure what ails the health insurance system for millions of American seniors by killing it. When Ryan unveiled his Roadmap back in February, privatization of Medicare was the centerpiece. But because the value of Ryan’s vouchers fails to keep up with the out-of-control rise in premiums in the private health insurance market, America’s elderly would be forced to pay more out of pocket or accept less coverage.
George W. Bush’s disastrous drive to privatize Social Security helped undermine his presidency. Now, in the wake of a Wall Street meltdown that evaporated the retirement savings for countless thousands of Americans, the Republican Golden Boy Ryan is calling for an encore.
Yeah. Ryan is the one Republicans should be considering for president or VP. Go for it.