Even before Mitt Romney announced he was picking Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate, President Obama's campaign had been trying to make the election into a choice between "two fundamentally different visions" for the country. Romney's vision, Obama has been arguing, means a country in which everyone looks out for themselves, the rich get richer while working Americans suffer, and we avoid making the kind of forward-looking investments in things like education, infrastructure, and innovation that are needed to win the future.
Romney's decision to pick Ryan (you can watch the formal announcement above) means that argument is even easier to make. Check out this statement that just went out from Jim Messina, the Obama campaign manager:
In naming Congressman Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney has chosen a leader of the House Republicans who shares his commitment to the flawed theory that new budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy, while placing greater burdens on the middle class and seniors, will somehow deliver a stronger economy. The architect of the radical Republican House budget, Ryan, like Romney, proposed an additional $250,000 tax cut for millionaires, and deep cuts in education from Head Start to college aid. His plan also would end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher system, shifting thousands of dollars in health care costs to seniors. As a member of Congress, Ryan rubber-stamped the reckless Bush economic policies that exploded our deficit and crashed our economy. Now the Romney-Ryan ticket would take us back by repeating the same, catastrophic mistakes.
Little wonder Democrats are said to be high-fiving over the choice.