Before Paul Ryan was ‘radical’

On Saturday Mitt Romney named budget guru Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate. On Tuesday, Ryan will be in Nevada.

Smart move by the R&R Team. Nevada should be low-hanging fruit for Romney for a number of reasons. Yet if the election were held today, Obama would likely take the state.

In preparation for the visit, Nevadans might want to brush up on the newly minted veep candidate. Here's a starter in which it is pointed out that Obama once called Ryan's budget plans "entirely legitimate" some of which he would agree with.

But since he was named a VP candidate, Obama & Crew spent the weekend attacking Ryan's ideas as "radical," "draconian," "cruel," yada, yada, yada.

Can't be both, of course. But consistency has never been a hallmark of politics. Nevadans, especially Las Vegans, should give Ryan's ideas a hard look. In Las Vegas, can the economy get any worse? Nation-leading unemployment ... disabled housing market ... increased social ills.

In Clark County, nearly 250,000 people experience food insecurity and, of those, nearly 100,000 people experience very low food security. One in five schoolchildren are food insecure in Clark County.

Life under Obama's ideas have made Las Vegans more miserable. People here, I think, will be very receptive to other ideas. Welcome to Nevada, Mr. Ryan. Let's see what you got.