Does Romney Think Paul Ryan Is Qualified To Be President?

By Annie-Rose Strasser

Throughout his campaign, Mitt Romney has hammered President Obama for a lack of experience in the private sector...In fact, Romney even proposed a constitutional amendment that would require any president to have worked at least three years in the private sector.

And so it’s surprising that Romney has picked Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), a man who, outside of a job at McDonald’s and a brief stint at a company owned by his family, has hardly any private sector record.

Ryan began his career in the public sector before he even graduated college — in 1991 as a senate intern — and then spent the mid-1990s as a senate aide to Sens. Bob Kasten (R-WI) and Sam Brownback (R-KS). After that, he worked for vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp, then settled in for 13 years as a member of the House of Representatives.

Obama actually worked for private companies for the sum total of 14 years. If he is unqualified by Romney’s standards to grasp how the economy works, it’s not clear what would make Romney think Ryan more prepared to understand job creation, or to assume the Office of the President.

UPDATE:

The Romney campaign has released some facts on the private sector jobs Ryan has held: “Ryan moonlighted on Capitol Hill as a waiter at the Tortilla Coast restaurant & as a fitness trainer at Washington Sport and Health Club. …One of Ryan’s summer jobs in college was as an Oscar Mayer salesman in Minnesota, peddling turkey bacon and a new line called ‘Lunchables’ to supermarkets – he even drove the ‘Wienermobile’ once.”

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/08/11/677261/paul-ryan-qualified/