So, to review the bidding: when Romney picked Ryan, Establishment Democrats (and their liberal lackeys) cackled in response that the GOP would now have to hide from the entire state of Florida, thanks to Mediscare. No way that they were going to go all-in, there.

Yeah, about that?

Not so much. Note the signs: generally speaking, ducking an issue – or state – does not mean ‘showing up in the symbolic epicenter of a supposed controversy. With your mom. And with a big honking sign stating your position being used for your camera backstop.’ In fact, that’s kind of the opposite of ducking. If anybody in that crowd didn’t know by the end of the speech that Paul Ryan wants to talk about Medicare, it’s because they were deaf, blind, and lacking someone to sign the speech into their hands.

Meanwhile, the President is… limiting the size of his rallies? Wait, what?

“We have plenty of time for big rallies,” a campaign spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said between the rallies on Thursday. “Our focus right now is on exciting our supporters and winning over undecided voters and the smaller and medium-size events are the best venue to accomplish that because the president can closely engage with the crowd.”

Via JMF. What makes this NYT article particularly entertaining is the date: August 9th. On August 11th Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan for the VP slot, and since then Romney-Ryan’s crowds (and donations*) have soared. Annnnnnd that’s why Romney kept his pick a secret for as long as he needed to (which is to say, until after the Friday papers came out)…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*Somebody remind me in December to do a post on what the differences were between the Romney & McCain campaigns at this stage, particularly our reaction to their respective VP picks. I’d do one now, except that I think that I’d rather wait until writing that post won’t give the opposition party potentially valuable campaign data.