Obama Budget Politics: Target Ryan

A picture likes this makes me love the news photo biz.  In an act of careful timing (and aim), Reuters photographer Kevin Lamarque nails the political strategy behind Obama’s surprise budget address in which GOP budget guru Paul Ryan (having dominated the stage for weeks with his plan to end social security as we know it) gets a surprise dressing down  for thinking he could possibly eclipse the President of the United States.

Typically unflappable, but likely assuming he’s safely offstage, note the hangdog look.

(caption: U.S. House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) arrives to listen to President Barack Obama deliver a speech on U.S. fiscal and budgetary deficit policy at the George Washington University in Washington, April 13, 2011. Obama has proposed cutting ballooning U.S. budget deficits by $4 trillion over 12 years and called for talks with Democratic and Republican lawmakers to address the worsening fiscal woes.)