I'm still not sure whether Obama is a master strategist with some grand plan we just can't see yet, or a complete idiot.
He could be a really good campaigner, or a not-very-good campaigner who just got lucky. (Like Karl Rove.) And I think a lot of 2008 was down to Dean -- a guy who was a great campaigner even though he couldn't close the deal when he was the one running.
the Obama campaign practically sat on their hands through the Ryan VP selection when they could have skewered the GOP ticket over medicare. While we can argue about how effectively Romney accomplished it, I feel like it allowed their side to frame the Medicare debate in their favor when the ball was completely in our court.
Weeeell, but that first part is kinda it -- Romney just kinda flailed and flopped around and tripped over his dick like always. What's his stance on Medicare? "Well I totally oppose the Ryan plan, which is why I picked Ryan, because he supported it but now he doesn't, but I won't tell you what our plan is now." Essentially the same as his stance on everything else, which is who-the-fuck-knows.
I think there IS a certain wisdom to not making a big deal out of the opposition's running-mate and just letting the press do that job -- it sure as hell worked with Palin.
That said, there's plenty left to do with Ryan. Medicare's part of it, but painting him as the guy who's responsible for the past two years of congressional stonewalling could REALLY make him an albatross 'round Romney's neck.
And I think it's wise for the Democrats to make their convention about Obama instead of about Romney. You want your candidate to stand for something, not just against it; make the challenger the guy who's defining himself in terms of "at least I'm not that other guy".
Plus there's plenty of negative campaigning to be done by SuperPACs, surrogates, and of course Romney and Ryan themselves just by opening their damn-fool mouths. Not to mention the rest of their party -- who the fuck even knew who Akin was a couple weeks ago? I'm not even sure I just spelled his name right and I'm not going to look it up.