Vice-President picks are often political — a sop to a certain demographic group or state. Romney's pick of Ryan is something very different.
Yes, Wisconsin is an important state and Ryan is Catholic. Yet the real impact of this pick is that Ryan has been the out-spoken advocate of comprehensive reforms to our entitlement programs and to restoring government to its historic size and scope. In picking Ryan, Romney has emphatically embraced the limited government mantle as his own.
I'm a Ryan fan, but I'd hope that Americans of all political stripes will appreciate at least this about this pick. This election shouldn't–and indeed cannot given the crisis facing our country–be about trivial political swipes and slights. This election should be about the course of our country. It now will be.