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Why you shouldn't bet the farm on Ryan's goat-milking abilities

Time magazine's Jay Newton-Small explains why you shouldn't bet the farm on Speaker Paul Ryan's goat-milking abilities.
U.S. Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) smiles as he walks at the end of the day of the House Freedom Caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington Oct. 21, 2015. (Photo by Yuri Gripas/Reuters)
U.S. Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) smiles as he walks at the end of the day of the House Freedom Caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington Oct. 21, 2015.

Chris Matthews asked the Hardball Roundtable to "tell him something he doesn't know", and the topics ranged from Chris Christie's campaign...to the Speaker of the House's goat-milking abilities.

Matt Schlapp, the head of the American Conservative Union, has the inside scoop on Chris Christie’s resurgent campaign in New Hampshire. Schlapp says more big endorsements are coming for Christie, including a former state speaker who is expected to announce his support tomorrow. 

“They had their best online and low-dollar fundraising period in the last weeks,” according to Schlapp. “Clearly evidence of momentum.” 

Cornell Belcher, a veteran Democratic pollster who worked on both of Obama’s presidential campaigns, says that Hillary Clinton is going to have to recreate the coalition that swept Obama into office in “more exacting measures that they are probably comfortable with.” 

Citing the “heightened us vs them racial and xenophobia polarization” in the country, Belcher says that “the idea that she can win significantly more white votes than what Kerry and Obama did is fool's gold.” 

And don’t bet the farm on Paul Ryan’s ability to milk goats. Reporter Jay Newton Small gave Hardball an early look at some of her more colorful reporting for an upcoming Time Magazine profile of House Speaker Paul Ryan. Small says that Ryan is constantly lamenting about participating in the Racine County fair in his home state of Wisconsin, largely because he always gets his “butt kicked by this group of milk maids” during the fair’s goat-milking contest. 

But… “this year, he won his heat” says Small. “It says something about how he’s very good at managing his district” which Small notes is hardly a lock for Republicans due to heavy union support.  As they say, all politics is local. 

Paul Ryan's goat-milking abilities

Jay Newton-Small tells Chris Matthews why you should NOT bet the farm on Rep. Paul Ryan's goat-milking abilities. Really.

Posted by Hardball with Chris Matthews on Tuesday, December 1, 2015