Paul Ryan, VP

It's official, Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Congressman, will be Mitt Romney's Vice-Presidential running mate. A truly excellent, excellent selection. Everyone talks about him as a 'policy wonk,' and he is, but he is much, much more than that. He is the single best articulater and communicator of the ideals and principles his policies embody. To call him dynamic and electric would be to underrate his very special talents.

His selection, however, puts a giant bullseye on Mitt Romney's back: Medicare reform. This is because Paul Ryan proposed (and passed) a budget plan in the House whose centerpiece was Medicare reform. Medicare reform (or Social Security reform) is not called the 3rd Rail of Politics for nothing. Traditionally, any Republican who dared put 'Medicare' and 'reform' in the same sentence was immediately tarred, feathered, and dragged out of town on a rail faster than you can say Hope and Change. Simply put, the CW (Common Wisdom, not the TV network) is that Medicare reform is political death, period. So what should our Republican standard bearers do?

It's amazing that I have to even mention this, but they need only follow one rule: never begin a sentence that includes Medicare without saying a minimum of three times, "We must save Medicare. Save Medicare. Save Medicare."  And never end that sentence without saying again, "We must save Medicare. Save Medicare. Save Medicare." There must be no instance in which any Medicare proposal is mentioned that is not, over and over, put in the context of saving the program.

That's it. So simple, and yet if you look at the debates of the last 20 years on Medicare or Social Security, Republicans have never evinced even a hint that they understand that this is their soft spot. And this, even after the Democrats, without fail, always respond "They are destroying Medicare. Destroying Medicare. Destroying Medicare!" 

In other words, the Democrats get it, the Republicans don't. In my opinion, Medicare and Social Security reform have only been the 3rd rail of politics these many years because of the particular imbecility that only Republicans can exhibit. Let's hope they finally get it this time.