A mixed bag from Paul Ryan

Ordinarily, when Paul Ryan puts something out about poverty and social spending, the response is predictable and polarized. The senior House Republican and 2012 vice presidential nominee likes Ayn Rand and small government and racially coded criticism. We know what box to put him in.

Not this time. Left-leaning reactions to Ryan’s new poverty plan have been markedly diverse. Some have just written it off as so much political posturing by someone there’s no reason to trust. Others have taken it seriously and found a lot to like. Still others have taken it seriously and gone the other way.

I for one don’t think it’s especially helpful to simply dismiss this as cynical politics or some sort of bait and switch. As Ryan points out, he’s wearing a different hat here than when he’s speaking in his capacity as House Budget chair. It’s fair to ask which hat more closely resembles the one he might wear as, say, the next Republican president. It’s a lot less fair to assume we know the answer already.