Just most of them, and "hate" is not the appropriate word. Distrust and dislike -- much more fitting. I know I've been asked before, "are there any politicians whom you actually do like?" In terms of "like," I'd say the answer is no; however, there are some politicians for whom I have certain measures of respect and a few that I've even found to be fairly impressive from time to time.One such politician with whom I have been generally impressed any time I've seen him on television is Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) (pictured above between Obama & the white-haired dude at the so-called Health Care Summit earlier this year). Ryan is the top republican on the House Budget Committee and a member of Obama's deficit commission. By all appearances, he's a very devoted and staunch conservative (certainly not a centrist or moderate), which puts him well to the right of me. When I've seen or heard Ryan talk over the past year, he has consistently come across to me as intelligent, genuine and sincere -- a set of characteristics that is simply not witnessed in the overwelming majority of politicians (I'd concede that most politicians are not stupid, but genuine and sincere are different matters).
Ryan seems to be one of the very few republicans actually interested in developing a concrete plan for reducing the massive federal budget deficit that we've seen in recent years. Politico.com currently has a story (link to full article at bottom) about Ryan today presenting his "road map" for deficit reduction to the liberal Brookings Institution. Many of the liberals in attendance generally praised Ryan for actually coming up with his own plan, even if they (predictably) didn't care for it too much.
During his presentation, Ryan also admitted that most of his fellow republicans -- for purely B.S. political reasons -- aren't too interested right now in coming up with a specific plan for deficit reduction. Said Ryan: "They are talking to their pollsters. They are saying, 'Stay away from this. We are going to win an election.'" Translation: His fellow republicans lack the backbone to get behind serious and specific deficit reduction proposals, and would rather prefer just to talk in political-speak generalities this summer and fall. Boy, the guts!
I recently in this space posited the question of where is the courageous leader willing to fight the fight and take the political heat from all sides that will necessarily go hand-in-hand with serious budget deficit reduction. Well, maybe Ryan's about all we got.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40110.html
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