The Paul Ryan Pick: Clarifying or Insurgent? Offense or Defense?
Not pictured: "Filing tax returns like Mitt Romney for Dummies" Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan says many things about the state of the campaign. At first glance, one must agree with Nate Silver , it doesn’t seem like a choice a candidate confident in his chances would make. However, the right is elated that Boston picked a certified, card-carrying fiscal conservative – and crowds have grown as the Romney campaign finally has some juice. At the same time, the Ryan pick has the potential to undermine Romney’s key argument. This is that the most important issue is the country’s poor economic performance, which he can change, and nothing else matters. In her book The Message Matters: The Economy and Presidential Campaigns , Lynn Vavreck argues for the primacy of the economy in the general election. Campaigns then, fall into two categories: clarifying and insurgent. A clarifying campaign has the economy on its side. This can be an incumbent party riding an economic wa...