So I've been watching the pundits talk about Paul Ryan for a few weeks now. There was an initial storm that began brewing when he was nominated, and it centered on his budget plans, especially his plans for medicare. The Republicans mounted a focused defense against having Paul Ryan's policies hung around Mitt's neck. As we all know, Mitt has dodged his own policies for years, so it shouldn't be a very big deal for him to sidestep his running mate's, right?
Paul Ryan's budget proposal, his voting record, and his attacks on Medicare are a serious weakness for the Republican ticket, and it was important that the GOP nullify these attacks quickly. Very soon after adding Ryan to the ticket, both Romney and Ryan made multiple statements to the effect that Mitt was the top of the ticket, and had his own plans (whatever those were), and that of course Paul Ryan would be supporting Romney's proposals rather than his own.
Since then, we've seen very little in the way of real attacks on Paul Ryan's budget or any of his other policies. We've let the discussion shift to whether or not Romney actually DOES differ from his VP candidate, and what those differences might be. In other words, they've successfully shifted the focus from Paul Ryan and what he stands for to Mitt Romney and what he stands for, and that's a much more slippery topic.
It's looking like they've nullified that weakness and won that battle, but it's not too late yet, because there's something that the Serious News People and the pundits seem to have forgotten.
So where are you, pundits? I saw Bill Maher miss this response recently, and I can't find anyone else saying this either, but every single time that Paul Ryan dodges questions about his policies by hiding behind Mitt Romney's coattails, someone need to tell him that nobody cares about the Vice President's policies while the president is alive. The big job, the most important job of a Vice President is to be ready to step in to keep the country operating if the President dies or becomes impaired.
And if Paul Ryan is called upon to execute the most important duty of his office...well, whose policies do we get then, Paul? Yours, I assume. So aren't you just adorable, claiming that your policies don't matter and we should all stop discussing them right away. You almost got away with that.