When the Republican Convention nominates Paul Ryan for Vice-President, then it will declare the writings of Ayn Rand to be the ideology of the party. Of what, exactly, is Ryan's and the Republicans' Randianism conservative?

In what politically meaningful sense is Ryan a Catholic, rather than a Randian who merely happens to go to Mass for show and notionally to oppose abortions that he imagines occur in some economic, social, cultural and political vacuum?

Not that he himself really does imagine any such thing, of course. The question is now whether or not conservatives and Catholics are as stupid as Randian Ryan and the Randian Republicans think that they are.

Beating a man who openly wants to abolish the whole of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and who has done so since long before the 2008 crash, is, in itself, candy from a baby stuff. But it is no less important to strip him and his of any claim to represent conservative or Catholic opinion. That, too, ought not to be overly difficult to do.

Most leading GOP figures are, essentially, extremists - Paul Ryan is an extremist on steroids. His unrestrained contempt for the values of civilised democracy can only work in favour of Obama. And Obama is about as flawed as a Democrat can be.

The full impact of David Lindsay's informative response has only now hit home. Profiteering from the massacree (level of debate engineered by the anti-abortion side ) of unborn infants looms a lot larger than anything described in the Bible. Herod the Cruel rather than Herod Antipas is someone who seems to fit the bill. We know this clean-cut biz type would sell somebody else's 'bowel movement' to make buck but making a profit from unborn tissue is something quite alien to 'due diligence'!

Pre-Birther

Ah, yes, Paul Ryan, who is all for cutting the costs citizens and goverment alike impose on society, dastardly beasts that they are; Paul Ryan, seventh term goverment employee, who comes from a rich construction firm dynasty and therefore has a intuitive grasp of the needs of the average underpaid worker. Yes, yes, let the republican farce continue.

Not to judge a book by it's cover, but it looks like he was picked cos he looks right next to Mitt. Sort of a Batman and Robin team...
Ryan seems young, vague and unaccomplished. VP candidates should be at minimum qualified to take over should the need arise - and this guy seems highly underqualified.

Booyah Socialists-- midwest boy, understands America, will fit nicely with successful businessman Romney & I don't think his pastor preaches "GD America"! This new 4 years will be the "change" everyone was promised... We can get out of this spending nightmare!

Ryan's cuts in support to poor women will make abortion far more likely, whereas the Affordable Care Act provided $250 million of support for vulnerable pregnant women and alternatives to abortion. But then, ObamaCare does not fund abortion, whereas RomneyCare does.

And Bain Capital owned Stericycle, a major disposer of the dead bodies of aborted children in the United States, in part or in whole until 2004, selling its remaining interest for a profit in the tens of millions of dollars. Romney, who headed Bain during most of its Stericycle period, still receives an annual payout from Bain. Romney is an abortion profiteer.