Dear Editor,
I read news reports stating that presumptive Republican presidential nominee  Willard “Mitt” Romney has picked a 42 year-old Wisconsin congressman, Paul Ryan to be his vice-presidential running-mate. While their respective initials of their surnames are R.R., they are certainly not a Rolls-Royce dream-team for the bulk of American voters. More like Regret and Remorse. As an Independent voter myself, I know comparatively few details about Ryan, however, I do know that he was formerly associated with Sam Brownback while Brownback was then a U.S. Senator. The Ryan-inspired “Roadmap for America” has been a naysayer’s dead-end, as has Brownback’s “Roadmap for Kansas” for our lower and middle-class workers. They are catchy slogans with little genuine ‘worth’. Romney would have been better-served to pick someone such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. However, it is clear that the flamboyant and outspoken Christie would have overshadowed the meek and timid Romney. It is equally sad that under Wisconsin-law: Ryan can concurrently run for re-election to his current job as Congressman, while simultaneously running for Vice President. For him it is a “win-win” proposition. Gee whiz, I wish I had two simultaneous job-offers and being almost assured of obtaining one or the other. That fact alone shows that the political cronyism and the “good ole boy network” is alive and well. Ryan may be Roman Catholic, but he doesn’t have enough morals to put his own neck-on-the-line by sacrificing. I, too, am a Roman Catholic but if I were in his shoes I would readily “sacrifice something” to show sympathy, empathy, and solidarity to voters who struggle just to get a tiny piece of “The American Dream” (which isn’t solely a house and a car), but a balanced middle-ground, peace of mind that they have a chance at success during times of Prosperity with back-up sustenance in cases of hard economic times. Ryan shows no signs of setting such a good example, if he hedges his own bets for feathering his own personal nest.  We need a drastic “change” that neither a Romney-Ryan ticket nor an Obama-Biden ticket can deliver.
Sincerely,
James A. Marples
Esbon