John McCain went for Palin for the same reason. He was worried that he didn't appear conservative enough.

Wonder if it'll have the same effect?

Looks like Nate Silver is right that Rommey's choice will stir the left as much as (if not more than, if this morning's Slog posts are any measure) the right. "But at least Mr. Romney is taking a risk". http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com…

Of course, the most important strike against him as far as the Stranger is concerned is that he has an Anglo sounding name and he doesn't put his penis in places that are meant for pooping.

@4: That was a dumb line when you posted it in the other Ryan threads. Do more than cut and paste, please.

I really hope you guys actually get payed well to shill for a certain party in partisan politics.

Once it gets down to election time, you guys lose any sense of the bigger picture and do nothing but shill for one against the other, regardless of the true merits involved.

Looking forward to the conclusion of this election so you guys can once again return to being a semi-respectable news organization.

@2 "...the statistical system DW-Nominate evaluates him as being roughly as conservative as Representative Michele Bachmann". Thanks for the 538 pointer and this nice encapsulation of Ryan's voting record.

Thinks someone is projecting over the penis they want in their own pooper.Come out of the closet 4, you'll be a happier person.

@6: What is so partisan about reporting on the record of the new vice presidential candidate? Not following your logic.

Also, "paid."

@ 6

The Strangler is a "semi-respectable news organization?"

Much like the previous Veep nominee, Ryan is a pigbull with lipstick, Levi Johnston will immediately report for duty to knock his daughter up. And I hear you can see Canada from Ryan's house.

Has anyone seen the over/under on how long it will be until Wolf Blitzer asks PDR "How many years of tax returns did you have to supply to Team Willard?" during the vetting process?

Crediting Ayn Rand for his life in public service is like... nope, I can't, nothing fits.
It's just insane and requires both a complete misreading of Rand and no understanding of "public service".

@12: Ryan's taxes since joining Congress are public record, but I bet the first time he's available to press, he'll be asked about Romney's taxes. Knowing the Romney campaign, though, he might not be available to the press for months.

@13: I know, right? Politicians aren't treated very well in Atlas Shrugged.

The Stranger brushes off their shilling by calling it 'advocacy journalism', which isn't really journalism (normal people call it propaganda), but that's okay, they're not really journalists.

This could be such an easy pivot for the Obama machine. That he used that "trickle down fairies" line earlier make me hope they'll finally attack voodoo economics head on. One can hope.

@14 With Ryan's talent of 'baffling them with bullshit' (His Ayn Rand flip is priceless), and the need to change the game, I think they'll put him out earlier and controlled like Palin.. He seems better suited for that then her, but even Daily Kos thought she was a reasonable R before her nomination.

@12: Liza Ryan is only 12 years old. I know you're making a joke... but really.

Paul, do you have video of him forcing his interns to read Ayn Rand? The sadism of the image rocks. Too funny. Or maybe HBO will make a movie.

I agree with you, @17. If anything, they'll put Ryan out there more often than Romney. Rumor has it, even the most liberal reporters like him a lot when they get to hang out with him.

@20, the more liberal MALE reporters do, go the rumors. Bromancing has its limits.

@15 The only way it makes sense is if Ryan saw Rand's caricatures of corrupt politicians destroying the country and thought to himself, "I want to do that when I grow up!"

@18 I'm pretty sure the Mormons are OK with that.

It can't be any more ironic than a fan of Ayn Rand becoming the Fed Chairman.

Announcing this early seems to be a bit of a risk as well. Ryan might be able to woo reporters when he gets to frame the conversation, but if the O machine can rebrand him before the convention starts on the 27th, they could negate part of the post convention bounce.

@23 Kudos.

What a scary choice. Unfortunately, this lunatic also has a bit of charisma - a trait that could be extremely helpful for team Romney.

Ayn Rand Fun Fact-She based all of her protagonists on a serial killer she was enamored with. Sociopaths are such good role models!!!

The guy is a total shitstain but you gotta admit it is a pretty good pick for Rmoney.

The Mo's here in Utah are SO EXCITED by the Ryan news. Funny how so many of them are on public assistance, keep pushing out the kids, yet back someone who wants to take all their special funding away.

@4 - Oh honey muffin, you aren't the stranger's worst nightmare... you're the possum no one cries too much about when run over.

@25: Good point. The Obama campaign is probably going to up their spending this week and next week to do a double-hit on Romney's taxes and Ryan's record. Obama supporters might want to donate a little extra this week.

@31: I'm glad I wasn't the only one getting a "possum" vibe from TSWN. That was exactly the word I was thinking. Weird!

@24

Do you ever sometimes feel that it's useless to comment? The irony.

@32 Not to dissuade donations, but I think that bringing in chicago-style politicking early (Reid's jumpstarting the tax attack, death ad etc) is going to help blunt the affects of citizens united this year. 70% of american voters get their election new solely from network news only. As long as they keep throwing hard, mostly clean punches that the news shows will argue about, the power of the amount of ads bought should diminish. Truthfully I'm more worried about cash poured into republican GOTV and 'stop their vote' campaigns. Oh, and Nate Silver makes a good point that Ryan a great direct route for Obama to go after congress.

I think of TSWN more as the santorum of a comment thread, you don't really want to acknowledge it in the middle of all the fun, but he just feels he has to self servingly stain the sheets.

Possum, hmm. Not even irritating enough to rate being called a cockroach.

Political religion comes in many forms. Sometimes, it's fascism. Sometimes, it's Leninism. Sometimes,it's Libertarianism. And sometimes, it's a personality cult.

Whenever I find someone that uses canned answers to reply to challenges to their philosophy, I wonder if they even think it through anymore. or if they ever did. For some, the answers seem so easy. They're handed to them in pill form, meant to be swallowed whole, unquestioningly.

My dream candidate would not have any responses ready to whip out in an instant. S/he would paused when asked a question, mull the idea over, ask alot of questions, engage in a discussion exploring the merits and deficits of an idea, and then arrive at a conclusion that is open to later review.

Such a candidate will never exist. We want our politicians to be confident even to absurdity. We want them to be super-human, in their ability to know exactly what is to be done. Which is why our system fails so frequently. The only people who ever get into office are the frauds who project themselves as being exactly what we want them to be- infallible.

I have no religion and no politics to speak of. I have a few things I would like to see done, but those who sit in pews or pay membership dues frighten me.

Howarrd Fineman posted an anonymous letter from some R bigwig mentioning similar worries...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-fin…

And here's a picture from last year of Ryan drinking two $350 bottles of wine with a hedge fund manager (who really doesn't like Obama) and U of Chicago Economist (*cgh* assholes *cgh*) who got into a smackdown with Paul Krugman and Brad DeLong.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.co…

In the third debate, instead of Vice President versus Vice President, how about opposing VP versus Presidential candidate?

That would give us a Ryan versus Obama debate (and a less interesting Romney vs. Biden).

So, this would be a chance for each party's Ideological Persecutor to interrogate the flag bearing candidate.

@39: ...um, are you saying that Romney has more personality than Obama does?

Biden's an "ideological persecutor"?

@39, you've obviously never heard an Obama campaign speech.

Paul rules! Constant that is. Thanks for this info-packed post.

Ryan is the VP pick for one simple reason. Romney panicked.

@47: http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uplo…
http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore…
You were saying?

@49 the sad part is if the public sector hadn't been gutted during the last couple years the economy would be quite healthy.