It looks like it's Paul Ryan!!!

Obama can't serve 8 more years, he is only allowed 2 terms. That's a total of 8 years.

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will part ways until the Republican convention at a rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin just a day after the pair joined up.

Ryan will travel to Des Moines, Iowa, to visit the state fair on Monday, while Romney will continue his swing state bus tour with a stop in Florida.

Romney adviser Kevin Madden denied that the campaign was keeping Ryan out of Florida because of his proposal to privatize Medicare for people under 55; tinkering with the program for the elderly has long been toxic in Florida politics.

"This has more to do with expanding our bandwidth," he told reporters here on Sunday morning. "Gov. Romney is going to be talking about the issues that are important to Floridians."

Madden didn't respond directly to the question of whether Romney will discuss Medicare in Florida tomorrow.

"He’ll be talking about all the issues that are important to Floridians," Madded repeated. "I think Congressman Ryan is going to be able to be down in Florida during this campaign and will be doing the same at some point."

I agree Romney has the nomination tied up, but what about the election? At about 50%, voter participation in federal elections is low in America. Public opinion is already polarized, so there aren't that many swing voters whose mind he can change this year. So Romney may just be betting that the risk of base voters staying home outweighs the risk of Independents swinging Democratic. I'm not sure that's an unreasonable bet.

People who identify as Democrats outnumber self-identified Republicans,

It's questionable, however, whether Romney can persuade independents to support his ticket now that it has the leader of the most-reviled element of the most-despised branch of government on its bottom half.

Are you sure? That's news to me. And for what it's worth, I just checked by Googing "self-identified Republicans Democrats". The first (and most recent) hit I got was this Rasmussen poll from August 1st this year, saying it's 35% Republicans, 34% Democrats.

That's where distractions come in. In the current political environment, everybody who reads a newspaper knows what each party stands for, and whether they like it or not. Your typical "Independents" are no longer the open-minded, critical-thinking citizens that the term evokes. More likely they are ignorant, disoriented morons, easily distracted by Ryan's mild manners, his self-depreciating jokes, his youth, and his good looks (for a politician). Don't expect too much from the independents' talent for discerning candidates based on their platform.

Also don't expect Independents to get too much help from scrutinizing media outlets. Sure, you will hear many reports that "Democrats say" Ryan is a charlatan, a crank, and a wingnut. But you won't hear many outlets reporting, correctly, that the anonymous "Democrats"' assessment on this point would be correct. Instead, everyone will play it safe and stick to he-said, she-said stories. All of the above got G.W. Bush elected and re-elected; it may well work again in this election.

There are a lot of great zingers to be had in the Ryan budget.

Not the least of which being the fact that, under Ryan's plan, Romney would pay exactly zero dollars in income taxes.

Cycloptichorn

Cycloptichorn wrote:

There are a lot of great zingers to be had in the Ryan budget.

Not the least of which being the fact that, under Ryan's plan, Romney would pay exactly zero dollars in income taxes.

Cycloptichorn

Proof?

Under Ryan's 2010 proposal, taxes on income derived from capital gains, interest, dividends and inheritance would be eliminated. This would mean that Romney -- who reported an income of $27 million in 2010, all of it from those sources -- would have paid nothing in taxes, according to the Atlantic.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

There are a lot of great zingers to be had in the Ryan budget.

Not the least of which being the fact that, under Ryan's plan, Romney would pay exactly zero dollars in income taxes.

Cycloptichorn

Proof?

Elimination of Double Taxation of Savings. The current system essentially taxes savings twice: individuals pay tax on their earnings and, if they choose to invest those after-tax funds, they pay another tax on the return from their savings (i.e. interest, capital gains, or dividends). This proposal eliminates the second layer of taxation. Not only is this fair to individual taxpayers, it also is good for the economy. Greater savings leads to more investment and higher rates of productivity. Higher productivity ultimately drives increased living standards. The plan also eliminates the estate tax, another form of double taxation that is particularly harmful to small businesses.