The Political Candidate And His Reflection

I am sure the gentle reader remembers Aesop's fables from their childhood. Many parents used those simple tales and their morals to help teach their children right from wrong.

One of Aesop's fables was the one of the dog and his reflection. The story is of a dog that got himself a nice old bone and was walking along with it in his mouth. As he went across the bridge, he looked down into the water and saw his reflection, but thought it to be another dog with a bone. In his efforts to get the other dog's bone to add to his own, he ended up losing his bone in the process, ending up with nothing.

One cannot help but be reminded of that fable when one thinks of Paul Ryan.

Paul Ryan has been the Representative for Wisconsin's First Congressional District for 14 long years. And he is running for reelection for this seat.

But that's not enough for Ryan. He's also running to be the Vice-President for Mitt Romney.

And just like the dog in the fable, Ryan is having problems trying to handle both pursuits.

When Romney announced Ryan as his running mate, the right wing, especially here in Wisconsin, were beside themselves in their euphoria. I mean they were down right giddy.

But that giddiness has succumbed to controlled panic as their poll numbers keep dropping. Making Grandma put one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel doesn't sell as a viable healthcare plan after all. Who'd've thunk it?

And both the presidential and vice-presidential candidate getting caught up in lies and/or making rather elitist statements is not a big sell either.

So to try to bolster they falling numbers, Team Romney has sent their puppy-eyed Boy Wonder to Wisconsin several times for various fundraisers, appearances, and more fundraisers.

But this has led to Ryan to start losing the bone he already had, his congressional seat.

By my best figuring, since being tagged as Romney's VP selection, Ryan has been to Wisconsin or has an appearance planned for a total of eight times:

• On August 12, Ryan and Romney appeared in Waukesha for a "homecoming" even though Ryan's home is in Janesville.
• On August 27, he was at a send-off rally in Janesville.
• On September 12, he was at a town hall meeting in De Pere.
• On September 15, he was at a fundraiser in Middleton.
• On October 6, he had a fundraiser in Milwaukee.
• On October 7, he used his family for a photo op at a pumpkin farm in Sturtevant.
• On October 14, he appeared at a fundraiser for Tommy Thompson. Without doubt, he raised some cash for himself as well.
• On October 15, he's scheduled for a town hall in Waukesha.

Despite all of these appearances in or near his home district, Ryan has not once appeared with, much less debated, his opponent, Rob Zerban. And after the way that he got his rear end handed to him by Vice President Joe Biden, Ryan is probably going to be too scared to do another debate for a long time.

Instead of allowing the voters the chance to see the real differences between the two men and make an informed decision on Election Day, Ryan is hoping to get away with bamboozling them with a flurry of misleading TV ads. His offhand approach to his own district, plus the fact that he has done nothing for them in 14 years except increase unemployment and poverty isn't playing well against Zerban's positive attitude and attention to the voters.

As it stands at the moment, Ryan is about to find out that he isn't a big dog after all and is about to lose his first national race. And due to his focus on that bigger bone of being VP, Ryan is well on his way to losing the hold he once had on his congressional seat.

And I can't think of anyone more deserving of learning that lesson the hard way.