Former vice presidential candidate and current House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., gave a little more oxygen to the idea that he’ll run for president in 2016.
“I’m going to make my mind up later,” Ryan said on CNN today, as NBC’s Kasie Hunt noted. “I will give it serious consideration.” That remark goes beyond his comments earlier this month on Fox News.
“We look back at it as a very positive experience,” Ryan told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. “We actually enjoyed it. We got to meet hundreds of thousands of people who care so much about their country. We learned a lot, just about the greatness of this country. How hard-working people want to get ahead and make a difference. So I actually found it a very pleasant exercise to be candid with you.”
On the other hand, Politico’s Mike Allen Jim Vandehei cited Ryan associates who say he doesn’t like campaigning. “Ryan seems increasingly intrigued with the prospect of amassing more power within Congress, using his juice in the House leadership to promote his trademark Medicare plan and engineer spending cuts,” they suggested. “The friends say this path could ultimately lead him to an eventual run for House GOP leader, or even speaker, an option they surmise he has warmed to since the election.”
