from electoral-vote.com

Ryan Became Romney Instead of Romney Becoming Ryan

Conservatives who cheered Mitt Romney’s selection of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as his running mate in the hope this indicated a more aggressive, more conservative stance for Romney have been sorely disappointed. They had expected Ryan’s bold style to rub off on Romney. Instead it is the other way: Ryan has become muted and vague, like Romney. The problem is certainly not Ryan. All vice-presidential candidates know who the boss is and Ryan is surely doing precisely what his boss wants: look sharp but be vague about all the details.

In the six weeks since he was tapped, Ryan hasn’t given a single national press conference although he has done interviews for local media outlets—which typically don’t push the interviewee very hard. His stump speech rarely mentions his plan to replace Medicare with a voucher system. Instead he attacks President Obama and plays up his bow-hunting abilities and working-class background. None of this is the red meat conservatives had expected, but one sees Team Romney’s fingerprints all over it. The one time Ryan did talk about Medicare, at the annual AARP convention, he was roundly booed. To make things even worse, he was supposed to put Wisconsin in play, but our current average of six recent polls gives Obama a lead there of 51% to 45%.

In fact, his net effect on the ticket is probably negative. A new Ipsos poll shows that 44% think Ryan is not qualified to be President while 29% think he is. Given that in the absence of an evenly divided Senate, the Vice President’s only job is to call the White House every morning at 8 A.M. to see if the President is still alive, this is clearly not a good sign. But there is still hope for Ryan. Only 56% of registered voters even know who he is.