Spectator's Tyrrell: Romney/Ryan are Reagan Revisited

The GOP ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will usher in a rebirth of conservatism that will be “Ronald Reagan revisited,” American Spectator editor and author R. Emmett Tyrrell tells Newsmax.TV.

Tyrrell, author of the recent book “The Death of Liberalism,” said Romney’s selection of the Wisconsin congressman as his running mate has changed the election “because he and Paul Ryan are getting the campaign on track. They’re getting the campaign involved with ideas. Ideas of freedom. Ideas of substantial growth in this country.”

When asked if the United States is undergoing a rebirth of conservatism, he replied in the affirmative.

“It’s Ronald Reagan revisited,” he said. “Romney and Ryan have the answers to the problems that face this country. The problems that face this country are economic, budget overhang, enormous deficits, $16 trillion in deficits.

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“Where’s the money going to come from for that? If you expropriated the one percent and took all their wealth in a matter of years you’d be back in the same soup that you’re in. We’ve got to change the policies of entitlement and the policies that have practically bankrupted the country.”

Tyrrell was unconcerned about those who questioned Romney’s conservative credentials.

“I think he’s a good politician,” he said. “A good politician in this day and age adopts conservative policies and he did. He adopted the embodiment of sound, solid conservatism — Paul Ryan. That’s good enough for me.

"He’s a solid conservative tomorrow and I think he’ll be a solid conservative in the years to come and he’s got Paul Ryan right there at his side to keep an eye on him.”

On other issues, Tyrrell:

• Commenting on the shooting at the Family Research Council, said he was “astonished” the Southern Poverty Law Center “would label a hate crime a Christian group that wasn’t in any way involved in hate." He added, "They’ve taken enormous liberties with a good cause, the good cause of civil liberties. I’m for civil liberties but I don’t think that people who disagree with some sort of homosexual behavior are engaged in a hate crime. What they’re engaged in is freedom of speech.”
• Said recent attacks from the Obama campaign and its surrogates, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s assertion that Romney paid no taxes for 10 years, are “absolutely crazy.” Tyrrell noted that for the last two weeks he has been claiming that Reid is having an affair with a cow. “Answer that. Have Harry Reid come forward on the Senate floor and answer that he is not having sex with a cow. That’s an absurd charge but if absurd charges are what they want to deal with, they shouldn’t be dealing with Republican candidates for president, they should be dealing with me because I’ve launched absurd charges for years.”
• Said President Obama is “much beyond" liberal. "He’s a socialist and he will be defeated. I think a whole era is about to be ushered in with Romney as president, with Ryan as vice president, with the Republicans dominant in the House of Representatives and I think even dominant in the Senate. Liberalism is in the worst shape today that it’s ever been before. Socialism isn’t in very good shape, either.”