Romney’s choice of running mate accelerates the move away from the 2012 election as a straight-line referendum on the economy. Now it is unmistakably and irretrievably a decision about the future, says Robert Shrum.
Never pick a man with a plan—at least not Paul Ryan’s kind of plan.
After every quadrennial vice-presidential audition, another cautionary guideline emerges. A spectacular example: post–Sarah Palin, any potential choice will be tested for minimum passable competence in foreign policy.
Ryan
is an articulate, informed, self-proclaimed purveyor of “bold” ideas
that also happen to be very bad, both substantively and politically. By
the time the Obama campaign finishes with him, his specter, like hers,
will become a red flag—in his case, a warning against selecting anyone
who doesn’t conceal or soften his enmity to economic and social justice,
but explicitly repudiates the safety net and basic protections for the
middle class .
