Ryan to get over

OH! A surprise pick! The GOP candidate is going to shake up the race! He's selected someone who is going to excite the base!

Hey, are you feeling sense of deja vu? 'Cause I am.

But before we go any further, can we please take a moment of silence--with NO giggling!--for Tim Pawlenty? Damn, that guy must feel cursed. Always the bridesmaid, never the VP. He was *this* close with McCain, and now again this year... I wouldn't blame him if he says "screw it, I'm going to take a nice vacation this fall."

Paul Ryan is a smart guy and really I don't blame him for being obsessed with debt and deficits. As someone who thinks Ayn Rand was a fool, I can't get behind his solutions. But I think this is a very interesting pick, and he is not another Sara Palin, at least. He's been on the national stage a while, and is not going to be flustered by someone asking what magazines he's read lately.

Dems are crowing that this pick is a sign of desperation, and I think it's true if the dynamics of the race were the same as the pre-European trip, we'd be talking about Pawlenty or Portman today. But Mitt has been taking a beating, and even if you dismiss the polls as a temporary blip, you know things are bad when a candidate for President of the United States is on national TV, complaining about how unfair the other guy is being and suggesting that they call a truce on talking about each others' finances. As if, Mitt.

Conservatives, ironically, are also crowing about the pick. But I'm not sure all Republicans are. Right-leaning site Real Clear Politics, in an analysis that looks at both good and bad points to the pick, does include this line: "It opens up an Obama landslide scenario for the first time."

Still, Ryan is a talented politician. I don't think you can ever underestimate the positives that a young, handsome, energetic candidate brings to a race. We all like to think that such superficial things don't influence us, but we're probably not being honest when we do so. So maybe he can give Romney a boost. The real question is whether mainstream Americans, those mythical independents and those who are leaners on either side, will buy the austerity and safety-net slashing that Ryan is selling. Can the Romney campaign survive throwing itself spread-eagle on the third rail of politics, as one blog colorfully asked? I don't know. I know a lot of conservatives who eat that kind of crazy up with a spoon. They really think Social Security and Medicare are a bad idea and we'd be better off without them, although I don't see them sending back the checks.

But will the voters in the middle embrace the radical vision Ryan has? I have my doubts. But what is beyond doubt is that the campaign just got more interesting.