The rumor mill surged Tuesday with talk that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — last seen playing the bogeyman in numerous Medicare-themed Democratic campaign ads — was preparing to throw his hat in the presidential ring.
Ryan’s staff quickly tamped those rumors down — just like they were tamped down by Ryan himself the last time this came up — but not before the Wisconsin Democrats found a way to make a Medicare bogeyman out of Ryan yet again.
“Paul Ryan’s plan to end Medicare has made him the darling of the right, so much so that his cheerleaders are rooting for him to run for president,” reads a sarcastic Draft Ryan petition on the Wisconsin Democratic Party website. “We at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin encourage this.”
A Ryan candidacy would be a dream for Democrats, who have said they’ll make much of 2012 about the House Republican budget proposal Ryan crafted. Having that debate on the presidential level with Ryan himself is the stuff of Democratic ad writers’ fantasies. Democratic dreams aren’t likely to come true, but Ryan’s home state Democrats are wishing for a miracle all the same.
