Ronald Reagan would approve of Mitt Romney’s choice for a vice presidential running mate if he were alive today, his son, Michael told Newsmax, as he called Paul Ryan's selection the Republican hopeful’s “first great move.”
Reagan, a Newsmax contributor added in an exclusive interview on Saturday that “I hope it’s the first of many great moves.”
He said that Wisconsin budget hawk Ryan will be able to stand toe-to-toe with President Barack Obama on key issues and will be a tremendous asset to a Romney administration with his expertise as chairman of the House Budget Committee.
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“It shows that Mitt Romney’s willing to go outside the box of the normal and reach out and grab someone who really gets and understands what’s going on with the economy and how to fix it,” said Reagan.
He anticipates that Ryan will also breathe new life into the campaign, which had been struggling to regain momentum in recent weeks. “It’s going to really infuse some excitement and a lot of excitement probably within the conservative ranks,” he said.
Following the long and bitter primary struggle, some on the right have felt disconnected from Romney’s campaign. The decision to choose such a prominent conservative will undoubtedly resonate well with the right, according to Reagan.
“We all knew that he had to figure out a way to reach out to conservatives. What he did with this was show that he wants a vice president that can be an active vice president. He said Ryan fits the bill and is "not just a vice president who’s going to have lunch with him once a week, visit other countries, go to funerals, and sit in the Senate.”
Reagan said the choice was reminiscent of his father’s “Kitchen Cabinet” back in the 1980s.
“He wants a work mate that understands that there is a lot of work to be done and it has to be a team that he puts together to be able to do it a la Ronald Reagan with the Kitchen Cabinet, putting together a team of people that were successful who knew what the problems were, and how to solve the problems.”
Reagan does not believe that seniors will be any less likely to vote for the GOP ticket based on Ryan’s hardline approach for fixing Medicare and other entitlements.
“Seniors need to honestly understand what’s going on. Nobody has ever said that seniors are going to be hurt by this,” Reagan insisted.
“Everybody has always said ‘if you’re on it, you’re on it. Don’t worry about it.’ We have to worry about the next generation and make sure it’s still there for them to have Medicare, for them to have Social Security."
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