Sorry in advance for a political related post, but I like to think about elections as giant marketing campaigns and a Vice Presidential choice can be viewed either as your first major line extension or at least a big defining part of your brand equity.
The Ryan selection confirms the Romney team intends to try to steer the election to a single campaign issue - the economy. Throughout the primaries and over the course of the last few months, Romney's chief motto has been about putting job creation first.
While there's no doubt the economy is Romney's 'area of expertise', interestingly enough, the democrats have been successfully attacking Romney's record on job creation by citing his record as Massachusetts and Bain, as well as, hammering him on his tax ideas and potential tax evasion - essentially trying to undercut his area of strength. Romney realizes that the economy, however, is his only hope to win an election against a sitting president who is well liked on a personal level and who's foreign policy has been generally recognized as strong, especially for a democrat.
Therefore, picking Ryan as a running mate essentially allows the Romney team to retrench around the economic issue as Ryan is best known for his controversial, but bold budget plans that call for dramatic cuts in spending and overhauls to the social safety net programs. Republican's have praised the choice of Ryan specifically citing him as a 'policy guy' who is all about the 'numbers'. Ryan gives him a team that can republicans can market as economic experts to help fix the current status quo.
If I was in charge of Obama's strategy - I'd use the Ryan pick to ladder up the current attacks on Romney's character (the focus over the last few months has to be to drive a deficit of trust - tax evader, job exporter, potential SEC fraud) to a bigger picture campaign idea. The campaign idea would be "It takes heart" and it would center around branding the republican ticket as being heartless, number guys only concerned about a ruthless pursuit about the bottom line - doing whatever it takes to maximize Romney's pursuit of profits despite the human costs (outsourcing jobs, tax evasion, flip flopping on issues, tax cuts for the rich) and Ryan's pursuit of cutting spending despite the human costs (healthcare, medicare, social security, education). Obama needs to highlight the real costs of the ruthless pursuit of one signal goal. The fact that a CEO has the luxury of focusing only on profits to make shareholders rich, while the President has the responsibility to maximize the pursuit of happiness for all Americans (not just the wealthy).
Obama needs to show he is still the candidate of heart - the candidate of compassion and the little people, the champion of the middle class, retired voters, and struggling families - and these voters are looking for somebody who understands their problems, who will go to bed thinking about helping them, and will lead from the heart not the wallet. Obama should start preaching how a president needs to lead with his head and heart to ensure the welfare of Americans whether its protecting them from foreign enemies (Bin Laden), improving their health (healthcare), or maximizing the pursuit of happiness (investment in education, infrastructure, science, jobs). Every time Romney or Ryan point to policy, respond by asking "at what cost?" Continue to shift the discussion from the bottom line numbers to the path of potential destruction to the middle class required to achieve the policy they push.
Romney's biggest struggle with voters is much like John Kerry or Al Gore, he jut doesn't connect with the average voter. He comes off as a robot stiff...Obama can use this as he ladders the campaign up from a policy debate on economic numbers to a bigger issue of heart.
Romney and team need to be ready and be able to connect their policy to very big middle class benefits not sacrifices, it cannot just be a trickle down or theoretical effect, its got to be real and policy benefits have to be seen as short term.
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