Paul Ryan a sleeper nominee in a contested Republican convention?
When a politician says something, there’s often more than one way to interpret it. It’s what Twitter and, arguably, this blog are for. But ultimately, deciphering a politician’s true intention is in the eye of the beholder.
And Paul Ryan’s interview with CNBC’s John Harwood on Tuesday night will likely have to fall into that gray area: Did he or did he not keep the door to a presidential run open?
Ryan told Harwood he hasn’t given much thought the idea of accepting a last-minute nomination at a contested convention this July.
Plus, the facts don’t add up to a guy who’s toying with running for president: A committee set up to persuade him to run shut down, apparently at the urging of his aides. And to the casual observer, Ryan seems much more focused on his new job as speaker than trying to launch a clandestine presidential bid. In his interview with Harwood, Ryan indicated he doesn’t even want the job (right now, at least).
“I actually think you should run for president if you’re going to be president, if you want to be president,” he said. “I’m not running for president. I made that decision, consciously, not to.”
But. Ryan also wouldn’t, in Harwood’s words, “categorically” rule out accepting Republicans’ nomination if it was offered to him at the convention in July. Here’s the key passage:
“You know, I haven’t given any thought to this stuff. People say, ‘What about the contested convention?’ I say, well, there are a lot of people running for president. We’ll see. Who knows?” Ryan said.
Read more at WashingtonPost.com.
FILE – In this Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015, file photo, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrive at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 45th Annual Legislative Conference Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington. The president and first lady will make an appearance at the 2016 South by Southwest interactive and music five-day festival which kicks off Friday, March 11, 2016, in Austin, Texas. The appearances mark the first time a sitting president and first lady have spoken at the annual gathering, a group of conferences on tech, music and film which drew more than 80,000 attendees in 2015. And it comes in the midst of a tumultuous election year. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)