His Bootstraps Match His Earbuds

Paul Ryan is the first Gen X-er to be picked for a major party ticket, which, as a Gen X-er, I find super depressing. But it's all because of his bootstraps! Also because he is SO COOL!

Republican vice-presidential hopeful and conservative star Paul Ryan kicks back with locally brewed beers while listening to '90s-era grunge music. He's the first member of Generation X to be named to a major party ticket.

Ryan's up-by-your-bootstraps personality doesn't exactly match the ennui expressed by the grunge bands of his youth -- he was voted "biggest brown-noser" in high school, after all. But his economic and political perspectives, like those of many of his generation, were formed in part by the fiscally conservative Reaganomics principles of his childhood and the stark realities of entering a post-college job market during the 1990s recession and dot-com boom and bust.

"Gen Xers were supposed to be the lost generation. (That label) shaped him because he went back to the principles of hard work to get ahead," said Dylan Glenn, a former Bush administration economic policy analyst who has been friends with Ryan for nearly 20 years.

Ohhhhhhhh he went back to the principles of hard work to get ahead. Cool. See, here I thought it might have something to do with coming from a family of means and having all kinds of white, male, cis, straight, able-bodied, thin privilege, which virtually guaranteed that his hard work would axiomatically translate into success. SILLY ME!

Then there's the visual appeal of Ryan, who is the same age as one of Romney's sons. When Ryan stands on stage, flanked by his young children and wife, next to the Romneys, the older man looks warmer and more paternal, [Andra Gillespie, an associate professor of political science at Emory University in Atlanta] said.

"Mitt Romney is extremely stiff ... because he still has this persona where it hard for him to feel relatable. To have someone who is young and dynamic helps soften Romney up and attracts that 'it' factor and 'wow' factor," Gillespie said.

"Paul Ryan would seem to be cooler. Even talking about the fact that he listens to Led Zeppelin and grunge. ... The fact that he says he likes hard rock makes him seem cooler. ... That charisma is born in youth."

Just LOL. I'm pretty sure that no one has said, "Zie listens to grunge? HOW COOL!" since Singles came out on laserdisc.