Yes, Paul Ryan Still Has His House Of Reps Job

Mitt Romney may have lost his presidential bid, but his running mate Paul Ryan isn’t out of the job: Specifically, his old job as a Wisconsin Congressman.

Romney and Ryan lost to President Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, but Ryan actually won a small victory all his own last night by defeating Democratic businessman Rob Zerban to retain his Wisconsin House of Representative seat. The 42-year-old Ryan will continue to represent a district that includes his own Janesville, Racine, and parts of southern Milwaukee County, reports Channels TV.

Ryan returns to Congress where he has spent the last 14 years. He is still chairman of the House Budget Committee.

With President Obama re-taking the White House, Democrats securing a tighter hold on the Senate, and the House remaining relatively unchanged (in GOP control since 2010), the political climate doesn’t look to change much for at least the next two years.

While voters didn’t seem to punish President Obama, despite his being a historically vulnerable incumbent, voters also didn’t seem to reprimand the thickly partisan climate in Congress. Voters re-elected many Republicans to their posts despite historically low approval ratings in Congress and heavy blame placed on the perceived stubborn immobility of the Republican Party.

House Speaker John Boehner said last night that the GOP had “offered solutions and the American people want solutions and tonight they responded by renewing our House Republican majority.” Viewing the House re-elections as a mandate all their own, he continued: “With this vote, the American people also made clear there’s no mandate for raising tax rates.”

Maybe voters simply forced the same players back onto the playground in an effort to twist their arms into bipartisanship? “The upshot is that the voters are saying to President Obama and Speaker Boehner: ‘Go back to the bargaining table; finish the deal,’” said David Kendall, a senior fellow at Third Way, a centrist think tank in Washington.

Seems a bit optimistic, but no one’s to stop you from seeing it that way.

What do you think of Paul Ryan retaining his old job? Thoughts on the 2012 election in general? Sound off!