Game on

So, it's to be Romney-Ryan.

As others have noted, this will at least give voters a clear choice this November. While Romney has been credited by some as making a bold choice, I see this as more a sign of desperation.

This is the kind of selection you make when, even after all the primaries, you still cannot solidify the support of those within your own party who form the base -- in this case, the most conservative elements of the already-conservative Republican party. Taking fire from the right, Romney has once again surrendered and given them what they want. This isn't the bold choice of a leader, this is a weak person trying to get the mean kids to like him. When you're counting on the VP pick to bring charisma to the team, that says something about the top of the ticket.

I suspect this will work for Romney in the short term. The right-wingers and neo-conservatives, eager to grab the levers of power in Washington they held under George W. Bush and sensing they have a candidate they can push around, will now line up behing the double R ticket. But will America? I doubt it.

The folks in the Obama campaign are as happy about this pick as the right wingers. They'd been hoping to wrap Romney in the deeply-flawed Ryan budget plan this fall, and Romney has now done their work for them. What a stroke of luck!

Expect a campaign highlighting the true effects of the Ryan -- er, I mean the Romney -- plan upon the majority of Americans. When voters learn what is really on tap should the Republicans win, the thinking goes, they will be even more inclined to vote Democratic.

Already falling far behind among women and minority voters, it would seem the Romney campaign has now mostly written off any chance of increasing their share of those voting blocks. As an Obama supporter, I'm happy to see them doing that, of course, but I don't think that attitude is best for our country. I'd prefer both campaigns actually try to appeal to the broad majority of our citizens rather than try to put together just enough of various fragments to create a 50.1% whole.

With any luck, this will carry over to Congressional elections, as well. Democrats, who had hoped to pick up a few seats in the House and hold their own in the Senate, now think they may have an unexpected edge in a number of contests. We can only hope.

Game Change, a book written by esteemed journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, documented the decision by John McCain to select Sarah Palin as his choice for Vice President. They talked about how the McCain campaign hoped her selection would change the dynamics of the race and, for a time, it did. Eventually, however, the truth about Sarah Palin came out, and she was seen as one of the worst choices ever for a national ticket. We shall see what the selection of Paul Ryan means in the end.