Romney's VP choice brings budget leadership experience

In the weeks before Rep. Paul Ryan released his latest budget blueprint this year, he urged all of the presidential candidates to follow his fiscal lead. He critiqued GOP front-runner Mitt Romney’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference as “pretty good,” but cautioned that all of the candidates needed to take bold policy stances. “We need to have an election with a mandate, so we can fix these problems,” he said at a breakfast with reporters in mid-February.

He was equally noncommittal about his allegiances weeks later, when he praised both Romney and Rick Santorum for broaching the topic of entitlements on the campaign trail. “Their specifics have jived perfectly well with what we’ve been saying,” he told National Journal. “We’re all saying the same thing, and that’s very good in my opinion.”

And, when his big budget was finally unveiled in late March, the chairman of the House Budget Committee dared the GOP candidates to not follow suit. “I expect the Republican nominee to offer the country the legitimate choice that they deserve,” Ryan, of Wisconsin, said. “I expect our nominee to propose how to get us out of a debt crisis.”

How’s that for warm and fuzzy collaboration among the Republicans?

But, contrary to this tough-minded public stance, Republican aides, lobbyists, and Ryan’s own staff say that Ryan and likely Republican nominee Romney have developed a strong, working rapport—so strong in fact that Ryan’s name shot to the top of the list of potential vice presidential running mates. On Saturday, Romney is expected to officially announce Ryan as his pick.

Though Ryan may initially seem like a person unlikely to play second fiddle given his own large aspirations, sources say that the two men share a similar analytical mindset and a love of data, an ability to pivot on their messaging and framing of key issues, and the patience and persistence needed to take the long view in the pursuit of victory. In Ryan’s case, he’s spent years honing an ideology about the country’s fiscal trajectory that has become the House Repubicans’ dominant message, while Romney has shown similar steadfastness in the years he’s spent chasing the presidency.

“They connect on the fact that Ryan is one of the idea guys in our party,” said former New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg, who knows both men. “Romney likes people who think out of the box, who are capable of bringing substance.”