There is another benefit to the pick of Ryan for VP that I just realized.
I don’t think Obama wanted to start in earnest on the Mediscare, throw Granny off the cliff campaign until the last few weeks of the campaign.
There’s only so much fear mongering you can do until people just turn it off and don’t take it seriously any longer. You just can’t keep people roiled in fear for three months.
If you’re an incumbent, this is the time to do warm and fuzzy ads, not scare people to death.
Ryan has caused them to embark on the scare tactics way ahead of schedule. They’re going to blow through a bunch more money before people are even paying attention.
Consensus is that negative ads work, but I contend that an entire campaign based on attack ads will turn people off. Also, if there are killer ads, they have to come at the right time - like a week or two before an election.
Seems like the Dems. want to step out of the box and scare everyone about Ryan now, before people start falling in love with him. Fear is the weapon. Three more months of fear is going to lead to more stress and less paying attention to the ads.