Mitt has now signaled that he's down with the broader "Tea Party" agenda, and has decided to approach the General Election as a contest to see who can get out their base most effectively, at the expense of trying to woo fence sitters and moderates.

As closely divided as we are ideologically, this is just going to emphasize our polarization as a nation - it's like a 48/48 split right now, with maybe 4% in play between those polarized factions.

Interesting that Mitt has picked someone so much more articulate than himself. Think that makes him just a tad insecure?

What's weird to me about this is that Mitt was always kind of a moderate, but now he's picked someone who's almost his opposite in the Republican spectrum - if I was a more cynical man, I'd suspect that he's recognized that he wasn't going to be able to effectively differentiate his domestic policy record from Obama's, so he's basically going to abdicate on that whole range of issues - Ryan at least has a consistent record in that arena, and has way more emotional authenticity when he makes his case.

I disagree with Ryan on most of the economic and domestic policy stands he has that I'm aware of. I don't know much about his foreign policy positions, but I disagree with Mitt on those issues sufficiently to feel comfortable asserting that I doubt I'll be voting the Romney/Ryan ticket come November.

That said, though, I think Ryan does have the potential to make the Tea Party hard core believers a lot more likely to swallow their misgivings and accept that unless they want to see Obama's second term, they'll have to embrace Romney a lot more passionately than they were inclined to initially...

I still see the race as way too close to call. My gut says it'll come down to voter turnout in about 5 swing states...