House Speaker Paul Ryan is a good guy in a bad situation. What's worse, it is Ryan's admirers who have set him up to fail. Ryan is a creative politician whose talent is to learn from, and compromise with, elements of the other side on a few key issues. Conservatives and Republicans have put him in the position of being the party's chief ideologue and political strategist. It is a role for which he is poorly suited.
It is obvious what Ryan's friends see in him. He is handsome and articulate. He isn't a powerful speaker, like a Reagan or an Obama, but he has a knack for framing his ideas in a favorable light. That is more than most Republicans can do.
And it isn't just style. Ryan is a (relatively) small-government politician who takes an interest in details and shows a willingness to cross partisan and ideological divides. He worked with Democratic Senator Ron Wyden to reform Medicare. He worked with Democratic economist Alice Rivlin to propose a wide-ranging reform of health care financing.
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