Paul Ryan Is Just Like You, Worked At McDonald’s, Gasses Up A Big Ass Truck

COMMENTARY | Paul Ryan as potential second banana has confounded some people when contrasted against slightly broader potential GOP VP picks like Marco Rubio or Chris Christie — many have said Ryan is another “boring white guy,” in a party that some believe lacks diversity — but listening to the Vice Presidential contender speak, it becomes a bit clearer why Mitt Romney selected the handsome, young senator to share the ticket in November.

Yes, Paul Ryan may look like a slightly younger Mitt Romney, and the two seem to have much in common. But Ryan has a bit more of a common man vibe, and you’d best believe Camp Romney is going to work this angle to the core.

Just a few days after the announcement of Paul Ryan as the VP pick for Romney, the Wisconsin lawmaker is already preaching his just-like-you gospel to crowds, citing a youth working the fryer at McDonald’s as proof positive he is the man who can relate to your fiscal woes, even if he thinks grandmas should have vouchers for Medicare instead of, you know, Medicare.

Ryan said that while he toiled away at the Golden Arches, he always knew that the American Dream would be his:

“I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up, you know, when I was flippin’ burgers at McDonald’s, when I was standing in front of that big Hobart machine washing dishes or waiting tables, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life. I thought to myself, I’m the American dream on a path and journey so that I can find happiness however I can find it myself.”

Ryan also said that despite being a moneyed Congressman, he too finds the price of gas to be unbearable nowadays, and that $100 just doesn’t go as far as it used to:

“The last time I was filling my truck up, it cost 100 bucks. The only reason it cost 100 bucks is because the pump cut me off at at 100 dollars. I didn’t even fill the gas tank! Enough! We have our own oil and gas. We have nuclear. We have all of the above: Wind, solar, coal. Let’s use it. Let’s make us energy independent.”

While it seems Ryan’s schtick is a far cry from running-mate Romney’s car elevator-having public image, but the core policies — to continue shifting fiscal burdens to a middle class that has already shouldered the free-market gambling that marked the mid-to-late 2000s — appear to be identical between Romney and Ryan, greasing the slanted slope to poverty ever more for the decreasing numbers of Americans in the middle.

Do you think the selection of Ryan will make Romney more appealing to the middle and working classes?