The Ryan Role  —  Mark Kleiman points us to a lamentable but revealing column by William Saletan, which illustrates perfectly how the essentially ludicrous Paul Ryan has gotten so far - namely, by playing to the gullibility of self-proclaimed centrists, who want to show their “balance” by finding a conservative to praise.

POLITICO-GW Battleground Poll: Tied up  —  The race for the White House remained in a dead heat just before Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his running mate, a new POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground poll finds.  —  The poll, conducted in the days leading up to the Ryan announcement …

Paul Ryan Used His Office To Profit From the Financial Crisis  —  Republican vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan, left, wipes away tears as he and presidential candidate Mitt Romney greet supporters during a campaign event on Sunday in Waukesha, Wis.  —  Let's put this in the “the real scandal is what's legal” file:

Understanding the Ryan plan  —  The striking thing about Paul Ryan's ascent is the gulf between his proposals and the way the media have characterized them.  Since Mitt Romney named Ryan to the ticket on Saturday, the news has been filled with talk of the “ fiscal conservative ” (NPR) " …

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan - and their Wives!  - Open Up to PEOPLE  —  However tough and tight the race against President Obama gets this fall, Janna Ryan predicts that her husband Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney can count on one thing: fun.  —  PEOPLE was first to sit down with the freshly minted …

What Paul Ryan's budget actually cuts — and by how much  —  Both campaigns seem to agree that Mitt Romney's pick of Paul Ryan for the veep spot sets up a big, clear policy choice for the election.  President Obama's vision for the federal budget is very different from Paul Ryan's.

Mitt Romney cancels Florida campaign stop, citing exhaustion  —  Mitt Romney is cancelling a planned campaign stop Monday in Orlando after a whirlwind weekend in which the presumptive Republican nominee introduced Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as his running mate.

Format  —  The format for the debates, announced on July 25, 2012, will be:  —  First presidential debate  —  The debate will focus on domestic policy and be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on topics to be selected by the moderator and announced several weeks before the debate.