I have a great deal of respect for the analysis of Time’s Mark Halperin, who makes the effort to really stand back and analyze and isn’t always following the popular narrative of the moment. He thinks some of the left and right agreement about Republican Mitt Romney picking Rep. Paul Ryan to be his running mate is off the mark.
He doesn’t agree that the pick was risky game change pick:
To be sure, there are some potential downsides in choosing Ryan, who is untested in several key areas and who gives Democrats a better chance to smoke out Romney on budget and tax issues. And there is no doubt that Democrats think Romney has given them a huge gift.
But my sense is Romney chose Ryan as someone whom he would like to govern with and whom he likes. For all their strengths, Rob Portman and Tim Pawlenty would not have been excitement picks and would not have generated much media buzz or big crowds, both of which are required in the modern veepstakes racket.
So, Ryan could in the end hurt Romney’s chances or help them, but the notion that Mitt made the pick in a state of panic about his odds isn’t accurate. Before the pick, Romney’s chances were predicated on voters casting their ballots based on a lack of confidence in Obama to be a good steward of a good economy. That is still true now that Romney has become Romney-Ryan. And that is the whole ball of wax.
And, yes, it could be as simple as that. As I noted earlier this week, don’t count Mitt Romney out. And this would not be the first time a businessman chose as his second in command someone who he really felt good about and liked.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.