Paul Ryan Re-Elected to Congress; will Return after “Some time spent with the Family”

BOSTON (AP) — Paul Ryan said Wednesday that he will return to Congress, but will spend some time with his family first.

Ryan was re-elected Tuesday to his House seat from southeastern Wisconsin on the same night he and Mitt Romney came up short in their bid to unseat President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

State law allowed him to run for both offices simultaneously. He would have had to resign from Congress had he won both.

In a written statement released from Boston, Ryan said he was grateful for the chance to be part of a national campaign.

“I am immensely proud of the campaign we ran, and I remain grateful to Gov. Romney for the honor of being his running mate,” he said. “I look forward to spending some time with my family in the coming days and then continuing my responsibilities as chairman of the House Budget Committee and representative of Wisconsin’s First Congressional District.”

Ryan and his family spent the night in Boston after attending what they had hoped would be a victory celebration after the presidential election was decided. They were scheduled to return to their home in Janesville, Wis., later in the day.

Advisers had been weighing whether Ryan would be best served by returning to Congress for an eighth term if he were planning to run for president in 2016.

Even before he was tapped to be Romney’s running mate, the 42-year-old father of three was seen as a rising star within the Republican Party. As chairman of the powerful Budget Committee, Ryan gained national prominence when he drew up an austere budget blueprint that would reshape Medicare and retain tax breaks set to expire at year’s end.

http://news.yahoo.com/ryan-says-return-congress-164110018–election.html

An observation from JAMES: If Paul and Janna Ryan are even remotely considering a run at the 2016 Presidency, he is wise to return to his seat in Congress for the next session. I suspect that Ryan, like Marco Rubio, will be extremely “front and center” during the coming weeks and months in challenging the Obama agenda, both setting their groundwork to announce their intentions for 2016.

“She Is My Hero”: Paul Ryan Tears Up @ RNC Praising His Mom as His Daughter Embraces Her

Paul Ryan had a GREAT NIGHT, and he delivered a speech that had the GOP delegates on their feet.

But the moment that humanized the event came as he spoke of his mother and her courage after the death of his father in August 1986, 26 years ago. As the VP candidate spoke and looked up at his mother, who was full of pride as any mother would be, her eyes teared up, her 10 year old granddaughter Liza put her arm around her and embraced her, and the son on stage paused to wipe away his tears.

From an interview that Paul Ryan’s brother, Tobin, gave last week, one gets the picture of the dynamics that has shaped this man, the first of the Gen X’ers to be on the stage as a candidate for VP:

His father, Paul M. Ryan, age 55, was dead.

 Tobin’s younger brother, Paul D. Ryan, nicknamed P.D. by his three siblings, was inside. Paul, then 16 years old, had found their father while Tobin was at breakfast.

P.D. was alone. Their mother, Betty Ryan, was in Colorado visiting her family. Janet, their sister, was away from home, as was Stan, their older brother, who was working for IBM in upstate New York.

Their father’s secretary had called the house, frantically asking whether their father, a prominent local attorney, was coming to work. There were clients at the firm and they were getting impatient.

Paul put down the telephone and strolled down the hall to check on his dad. “Even though he had probably been dead through the night, Paul tried to resuscitate him,” Tobin says. His brother, this carefree teenager who flipped burgers at McDonald’s, did not panic. He tried mightily to do something, Tobin says, but their father’s heart had stopped.

“I’ve done a lot of reflecting in the past few days about what makes Paul tick,” Tobin says, and to him, much of his brother’s life can be understood by considering the events of that summer morning and their aftermath. Paul Ryan’s steadiness that day was impressive, Tobin says. But it was his perseverance after their father’s sudden death, through the end of high school and beyond, that defined him.

For the rest of the story: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/314426/my-brother-paul-ryan-robert-costa

Romney Chooses Paul Ryan: Bold & Governing over Bold & Politics

Mitt Romney made it official this morning, tapping Rep. Paul Ryan to be his running mate. In choosing Ryan, Romney is showing that he is willing to have the discussions that are necessary to correct the course of this country on a path of fiscal security. Is the Ryan plan the answer? Not necessarily. But he had the boldness to put the Road Map together, to have the conversation, and where are the alternatives?

Romney could have chosen “safe & politics” by tapping Se. Portman of Ohio, or “bold and politics” to pander to Florida & the Hispanics with Marco Rubio. Instead, he has chosen the bright and articulate Ryan, one who is willing to challenge Obama’s rhetoric, face to face.

So today it begins in earnest. And on November 6th, America’s Exceptionalism will once again be our Pride.