"America deserves a choice."
Here's a snippet of what GOP House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said in tonight's big speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. Via the Washington Examiner:
Everybody knows this is politically risky territory. Republicans have their battle scars on entitlement reform. That's why some argue that we should downplay bold agendas and simply wage a campaign focused solely on the President and his party.
I firmly disagree. Boldness and clarity offer the greatest opportunity to create a winning coalition. We will not only win the next election – we have a unique opportunity to sweep and remake the political landscape.
Of course we will highlight the President's failed agenda. But Americans deserve to choose an alternative agenda – one that aligns with our needs. One we can rally behind.
…My friends, America deserves a choice – and if it is an honest choice between these two visions, well, then we win, they lose.
Yes, the challenge before us is daunting. The President and his allies will do all in their power to try to make our philosophy of freedom seem radical.
But I believe the President and his party's leaders are profoundly mistaken.
They are growing increasingly isolated from the American mainstream. They just don't understand that Americans are seeking political leaders whose solutions are reassuring precisely because they are bold.
The President's partisans are underestimating the ability of Americans to do basic math. They don't realize that the sheer magnitude of our challenges has shifted the center of gravity under their feet, putting them at a disadvantage. The history of our own movement shows that we can win these fights – if we are willing to fight them.
As constitutional conservatives, let's offer Americans the choice they deserve. This is the moment we were made for. It is time to prove that the Founders got it right, both for centuries past and for centuries to come.
Let's contrast the President's path to decline with our own path that lifts the debt, promotes prosperity, and restores the greatness of the American Idea.
Ryan has been delivering similar messages—be specific, be bold, take risks—for a while. But it's hard to avoid seeing this speech as a challenge, and perhaps a warning, to all of the potential Republican presidential nominees, and to Mitt Romney in particular.
Read my 2010 feature, "Paul Ryan: Radical or Sellout?"
