Why Paul Ryan?

… Because the Romney campaign had reached the firm conclusion that the Governor, on his own, is unable to redirect public – and general media’s – attention back to the state of the economy, and President Obama’s inability to fix it.

Rather, the Obama campaign and its plentiful supply of media friends have largely succeeded in shifting the public’s focus from the President’s failings to Romney’s faux pas and political insensitivity.

In a campaign, it is usually ineffective – and defensive – to lament, as the Romney campaign has done repeatedly, that the Obama campaign is  distorting the truth and engaging in scurrilous lies.  Alas, those tactics have been working, as recent national polls suggest.

So rather than picking a dependable, experienced, somewhat colorless, mainstream conservative like former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty or Ohio Senator Ron Portman (both said to have been on the VP shortlist) who would not make waves, a forty-two year old congressman from Wisconsin with big ideas was the selection.

Ryan, who in seven terms has risen to the chairmanship of the House Budget Committee, is an intellectual heavyweight and is inarguably the GOP’s fiscal guru.  However, he fails, in my view, to meet Governor Romney’s oft-cited prerequisite for VP selection:  Be ready on Day One to assume the presidency.  Ryan’s experience is legislative, not executive.  Of course, the same was said accurately about Barack Obama in 2008, and he has proven that the wariness was warranted. 

Further, Congressman Ryan does not have the three years business experience that Romney said fatuously should be an additional Constitutional requirement (beside age and birthplace) for eligibility to be President.

So political calculations were clearly paramount in Congressman Ryan’s selection, and a game changer it may well be.  Certainly now, it will be considerably more difficult for the Obama campaign to generate interest in its attacks on Governor Romney’s social and business activities to the exclusion of the president’s dismal economic record.

Paul Ryan is the author of a comprehensive economic plan calling for changes in Medicare eligibility, tax rates and Medicaid funding.  Previously, Mitt Romney has pledged his full support (called The Path to Prosperity, details of the plan can be found at (http://budget.house.gov/UploadedFiles/PathToProsperityFY2012.pdf).

Of course, we all know that liberals will trot out the usual responses whenever efforts are made to bring federal spending under control:  “Widows and orphans are at risk, the poor will be left to starve, etc.”

That’s okay.  Such attacks have already lost much of their political potency as Americans become increasingly aware of our nation’s undeniably alarming  fiscal plight.

Judging from his campaign posture prior to Ryan’s selection, Romney and his advisers believed that the sad state of the economy alone would be enough to ensure a November triumph.  But the campaign underestimated the effect that Obama’s no-holds-barred, Chicago-style attack machine would have on his standing in the polls.  In addition, his own political ineptitude is apparently incorrigible (e.g., photos on the candidate on vacation aboard a jetski!).

I don’t doubt Romney’s sincerity regarding the value of executive experience in his running mate.  But like John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin four years ago, politics was the determining factor.  Since a candidate cannot affect policy if defeated, that’s hardly unreasonable. 

Let’s hope it does the trick.