Romney’s not-so-boring white guy

The next big event of the US presidential election will be Mitt Romney’s announcement of his Vice Presidential nominee. For the past few weeks, the two clear favourites have been Ohio Senator — and Budget Office director under George W Bush — Rob Portman and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. Both certainly fit the description of ‘incredibly boring white guy’ that one Republican official said the Romney campaign was looking for. But in the last couple of days, Romney has come under increasing pressure from the Right to pick Paul Ryan: a white guy, yes, but not so boring. When the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in January 2011, Ryan became chair of the Budget Committee — giving him responsibility for the GOP’s alternatives to Obama’s budget proposals. He’s consistently called for big cuts in health and social security spending, warning that otherwise the US faces a debt crisis.