Danger, Will Robinson: “While Republicans across the country hailed the selec­tion of Paul Ryan as Mitt ­Romney’s running mate, US Senator Scott Brown struck a much more cautious note Monday, as Democrats tried to tie him to the congressman’s controversial proposals to overhaul Medicare and cut social programs,” the Boston Globe writes. He said: “It was a bold choice. It certainly raises the bar when you want to talk about our country’s financial problems, and he’ll raise that conversation to a good level. . . . While we don’t agree on every­thing, I certainly appreciate his efforts to bring the budgetary ideas to the forefront. …”

“But Brown appeared to grow frustrated with repeated questions about Ryan’s proposals, some of which have the potential to spook seniors and swing voters, important blocs that Brown is courting. ‘Listen, you’ll have to speak to ­Ryan about his ideas,’ Brown said, walking away as a reporter asked him about Ryan’s plan to raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 by 2034. ‘I have my own ideas, and we’ve been voting on them.’”

Massachusetts Democrats are already trying to tie Brown to Ryan with this web video, highlighting Brown’s past praise of Romney and Ryan.

DES MOINES, IA -- Paul Ryan’s first solo campaign stop since being announced as Mitt Romney’s running mate was marred by constant interruptions from loud protesters Monday while visiting the Hawkeye State on the same day President Obama kicked off his bus tour here.
 
Ryan’s "welcome" at the popular Iowa State Fair -- where he was never knocked off message -- was similar to receptions he has received in his neighboring home state of Wisconsin, which saw tremendous amounts of protest during its fight over collective bargaining and its recall elections.
 
“It was great,” Ryan said about the event following his roughly 10-minute speech at the Des Moines Register’s Soap Box stage. “You know, in Wisconsin, we've been dealing with this sort of thing with these recall elections. It was an overwhelming crowd of support and it was exciting to do it and I love coming to the fair.”
 
The scene at the fairgrounds was very chaotic as Ryan attempted to make his way through the crowd –- shaking hands with folks along the way near the food vendors. During the speech, two women even attempted to get on the stage before security was forced to pull them away.
 
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, who made the trip to Iowa with his fellow Wisconsinite Sunday night, didn’t seem too concerned about the environment. 
 
“It’s an open forum. Public discourse right?” he said.
 
The Wisconsin congressman –- just tapped as Romney’s VP two days ago -– ventured to the battleground state of Iowa without Romney to bracket Obama’s three-day bus tour in the state. Ryan walked around the fair with Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and Congressman Steve King by his side.
 
"I heard that President Obama is starting his bus tour today, and I heard he wasn't going to come to the Iowa state fair," Ryan told the crowd before getting interrupted by a women shouting about Medicare. He continued: "My guess is the reason that the reason President Obama isn't making it here from Council Bluffs is he only knows left turns, but as you see the president come through on his bus tour you may ask him the same question I get asked all over America. And that is: Where are the jobs Mr. President?"

Ryan, who spent most of the morning meeting with staff both in person and via teleconference -- failed to address a big issue locally.
 
The state of Iowa, like much of the Midwest, is suffering from a severe drought.
 
Asked about how he thinks the government could help in these circumstances, Ryan said, “We'll get into all these policy things later... I just want to enjoy the fair.”
 
A Ryan aide told reporters, however, that the congressman voted for the drought relief bill  earlier this month -- the Agricultural Disaster Assistance Act Of 2012 -- and blamed the inaction from Congress on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
 
Ryan heads to Colorado for two private fundraisers Monday night and a public event Tuesday morning in the Denver area.

DURHAM, N.C. --  In his first public appearance since Mitt Romney unveiled Paul Ryan as his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden lashed the new GOP ticket to the Bush administration and said that Ryan's budget makes the differences between Obama and his Republican rivals even more stark.

"Congressman Ryan has given definition to the vague commitments that Romney's been making," Biden said of Ryan's controversial budget proposition during a Monday speech at the Durham Armory.

Calling his Republican counterpart a "good guy," Biden took issue with those who call the Ryan budget, which would fundamentally overhaul entitlement programs, a "gutsy" proposition.

"What's gutsy about giving millionaires another tax break? "What's gutsy about gutting Medicare, Medicaid, education?" Biden asked. "They talked about what they're proposing as new. Folks, this is only not new, it's not fair."

Met by cheers from the audience of several hundred, the vice president predicted that the American people will reject the Romney-Ryan effort "to impose on the American people what the Republican congress has been preaching."

Biden, on the first stop of a three-day swing through battleground states North Carolina and Virginia, argued that Ryan's voting record served as yet another GOP rubber stamp for decisions that led to the 2008 financial crisis.

"How do they think we got in this mess in the first place?" he asked. "As my little granddaughter would say, was it Casper the ghost who came along and did this? Who did it?"

The remarks tee up a new role for the vice president as one of the Obama campaign's strongest counterweights to Ryan's plan to overhaul entitlements, a measure that Democrats hope will be devastatingly unpopular for the GOP ticket in retiree-heavy states like Arizona and Florida.

Twenty-seven years separate Biden, who is known to enjoy watergun fights with his bevy of grandkids, and Ryan, a father of three children still years shy of their learners' permits.

Biden, one of the youngest senators in U.S. history, joined the ranks of Congress just weeks before Ryan's third birthday.

The vice president drew one biographical similarity between himself and the young congressman -- noting that both commonly quote their fathers.

"I'm glad to see that Congressman Ryan likes his dad too, quotes his dad." Biden noted. "I mean that sincerely."

Ryan's father died of cancer when he was a teenager.

Biden's trip also served as an organizing tool for Obama staff in North Carolina. Supporters who volunteer three times for a total of nine hours will receive a guaranteed credential for the president's convention speech, organizers announced at the start of the event.  

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- Mitt Romney returned to the campaign trail in this critical swing state Monday morning without his new running mate, but armed with new rhetoric accusing President Obama of running a dishonest campaign meant to deceive the American people.

"With a record, which has been as disappointing as the record that he’s demonstrated over the past four years, the president’s campaign has resorted to a very unusual tactic," Romney said. "It’s smear. It’s dirt. It’s distortion. It’s deception. it’s dishonesty. It diminishes the-- it diminishes the office of the presidency itself."

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign rally at Flagler College on Aug. 13 in St Augustine, Fla.

With those remarks, Romney may have been pre-butting Democratic attacks on his running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Ryan's Medicare overhaul plan would turn Medicare into a voucher or "premium support" program for those that would qualify for Medicare in 10 years (those 55 and younger). The plan would cap the amount that can be spent, prompting critics to say it would likely shift the burden, or the rest of the cost, to seniors.

The plan has become a lightning rod on both sides of the aisle. Romney contrasted the Republican ticket's plan with what he claimed were $700 billion in cuts to Medicare as part of the president's healthcare reform act. 

But as First Read wrote this morning: "What Obama did under the health care law was reduce the rate of growth in non-essential services (like Medicare Advantage), as well as increase premiums for higher-income recipients. That doesn't affect the Medicare benefits that current/future seniors receive."

"We want to make sure we preserve and protect Medicare," Romney claimed.

Romney supporters at the morning event here downplayed the negative effect a renewed focus on Medicare reform might have here in Florida, with its large voting block of senior citizens.

"It's going to change, but its not going to change drastically and nobody is going to be deprived," said retired lawyer Bill Graham, a Romney supporter. "Now, how that's coming about in Ryan's plan? At least he's got a plan. At least he's got something that can be laid out and looked at. "

This is going to be Democrats' challenge -- to convince people that what they're saying about the Ryan plan is actually true. But Democrats also have to be careful not to overplay their hand. On MSNBC's The Daily Rundown this morning, former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs claimed that his father, who's 83, would be getting a voucher.

Todd pointed out that's false. “Your father is not going to get that, because they’re not going to do anything to him" because the plan would not affect those older than 55.

Phebe Wehr, a retiree from St. Augustine, said Romney and Ryan needed to be much more specific in selling their plan to current seniors.

"People are out there saying on their placards, 'Don't take away my Medicare;' they won't be," Wehr said. "So, they have to make that a lot clearer. I think Ryan's programs are going to be misunderstood."

Romney also used some new language to pump up the energy level today, which was diminished from Sunday night's rallies in part by slow security lines which left hundreds of supporters on the sidewalk outside the metal detectors and single security checkpoint.

"I know there are people around the world who are always critical of America, have something negative to say, say our greatest days are in the past. Baloney," Romney said. "We just won more Olympic medals than any other nation on Earth. We also just, we just landed on Mars and took a good look at what's going on there. And I know the Chinese are planning on going to the moon, and I hope they have a good experience doing that, and I hope they stop in and take a look at our flag that was put there 43 years ago!"

Romney has been critical of President Obama on space. At an NBC debate in Tampa during the GOP primary he said space should be a "priority." But he didn't specify how much he would spend, whether he would increase or decrease NASA's budget, but instead called for a "collaborative" effort between government, commercial enterprise, and universities.

At another debate, Romney mocked Newt Gingrich's moon colony idea, but also lamented the idea of candidates going state to state with big promises.

"The Speaker comes here to Florida, wants to spend untold amount of money having a colony on the moon," Romney said. "I know it's very exciting on the Space Coast. ... Look, this idea of going state to state and promising what people want to hear, promising billions, hundreds of billions of dollars to make people happy, that's what got us into the trouble we're in now. We've got to say no to this kind of spending."

Also part of the program today -- Florida's junior Sen. Marco Rubio, whom Romney admitted was vetted for the vice-presidential slot, but was passed over in favor of Ryan, a decision about which some Floridians were circumspect.

"I thought if he wanted to win he should have picked Marco Rubio," said Paul Merana, 70, a retired military officer. "But Paul Ryan is a good second choice."

Romney picking Ryan shakes up the race, but will it last? … Big crowd turns out for Romney-Ryan in Wisconsin… Three questions we have: 1) Is Romney already distancing himself from Ryan’s budget plan?... 2) Which party is more comfortable debating the Ryan budget -- the GOP or Democrats?... 3) And just how will the Medicare debate play out, especially in Florida?... Romney stumps in the Sunshine State today, while Ryan heads to Iowa… And Obama begins three-day bus tour through the Hawkeye State.

*** Shake it up: By selecting Paul Ryan as his running mate on Saturday, Mitt Romney did something that Walter Mondale, Bob Dole, Al Gore, and John McCain did in previous presidential contests: They used their VP pick to try to shake things up. Trailing in the summer, they chose a running mate -- be it Geraldine Ferraro, Jack Kemp, Joe Lieberman, or Sarah Palin -- to change the fundamentals of the race. These picks all worked in the short run, but only once (with Lieberman) did it serve its purpose for the rest of the campaign. (Gore, after all, was able to battle back to where he actually won the popular vote.) So how will this play out for Romney? By picking Ryan, he made the calculation that he needed to pick someone to help redefine himself, first and foremost. The move also serves to fire up conservatives, give the GOP ticket a jolt of youthful energy, and make the case he now stands for something big. But it also wasn’t the kind of VP selection we saw from George W. Bush in 2000 or Barack Obama in 2008 that essentially said: “I’ve got this thing.” Instead, by picking Ryan, Romney said: “I need some help.”

*** Big crowd turns out for the GOP ticket in Wisconsin: And help is what he got last night. Per NBC’s Garrett Haake and Alex Moe, the largest campaign crowd of the season greeted Romney and his new running mate on Sunday in Waukesha, WI. “The energy generated by Ryan seemed to inspire the man at the top of ticket, who took on a heckler midway through his own remarks, then turned the moment into an indictment of President Obama's campaign, whose tactics have riled Romney in recent weeks.” In the first 48 hours after the Ryan pick, Romney looked like he’s enjoying being a candidate again. But after just two days of campaigning together -- during the final days of the Olympics (including yesterday’s USA vs. Spain basketball gold-medal basketball game) -- Romney and Ryan are now going their separate ways, and they possibly might not campaign together until the GOP convention. Romney today stumps in Florida, while Ryan heads to Iowa, where Obama also begins a three-day bus tour.

*** Romney: “I have my budget plan”: Is Romney already distancing himself from Ryan’s budget plan? It seemed that way in yesterday’s Romney-Ryan interview on “60 Minutes.” When CBS’s Bob Schieffer asked Romney if Democrats were going to be able to turn the presidential contest into a referendum on Ryan’s budget plan, the former Massachusetts governor responded, “I have my budget plan as you know that I've put out. And that's the budget plan that we're going to run on.” So wait a second: Romney selects as the running mate a man best known for his budget plan -- under the rationale that this race needs to be about big ideas. But then Romney says he has his own budget plan? On “TODAY” this morning, NBC’s Savannah Guthrie asked Romney spokesman Kevin Madden if Romney would sign the Ryan budget if it came to his desk. Madden replied -- as Romney has said before -- that he would sign it.

*** Which party is more comfortable debating Ryan and his plan? Here’s another question to ponder: By picking Ryan, are Romney and the Republicans playing on their turf? Or on the Democrats’ turf? On the one hand, the Romney-Ryan ticket will double down on the argument that Obama and the Democrats have failed when it comes to the deficit/debt. After all, the deficit was $1.4 trillion in FY ’09; $1.3 trillion in ’10; $1.5 trillion in ’11 (projected); and $1.1 trillion in ’12 (projected). On the other hand, Obama and the Democrats have been DYING to turn the presidential contest into a race against House Republicans. And guess what: Romney just selected a House Republican to be his running mate. As one of us wrote over the weekend, Obama has already delivered three big speeches in the past two years taking aim at House Republicans and the Ryan budget. “It’s a vision that says if our roads crumble and our bridges collapse, we can’t afford to fix them,” Obama said during his April 2011 speech at George Washington University. “If there are bright young Americans who have the drive and the will but not the money to go to college, we can’t afford to send them… It’s a vision that says America can’t afford to keep the promise we’ve made to care for our seniors.” Obama’s other two speeches were in Kansas (in Dec. 2011) and at the AP luncheon (in April 2012).

Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney claps as vice president select Congressman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., gives the thumbs up to supporters during a campaign event in Waukesha, Wisconsin August 12, 2012.

*** The battle over Medicare: And here’s a third question we have: Just how is the Medicare debate going to play out? One of Romney’s demographic strengths is with seniors, and three of the oldest populations in the country happen to be in these battleground states: Florida, Iowa, and Pennsylvania. But Romney -- already at a disadvantage with other demographic groups like women and Latinos -- can’t have seniors turn into a jump ball in November. So far, Romney and Republicans will counter that Obama’s health-care law is the bigger threat to seniors and Medicare. "There's only one president that I know of in history that robbed Medicare, $716 billion to pay for a new risky program of his own that we call Obamacare," Romney told “60 Minutes” yesterday. "What Paul Ryan and I have talked about is saving Medicare, is providing people greater choice in Medicare, making sure it's there for current seniors. But here is the challenge for the Republicans: Romney and Ryan are talking about FUNDAMENTALLY changing Medicare whereby future seniors will receive vouchers/premium support for LESS than they currently get under Medicare. What Obama did under the health care law was reduce the rate of growth in non-essential services (like Medicare Advantage), as well as increase premiums for higher-income recipients. That doesn't affect the Medicare benefits that current/future seniors receive.

Watch: How Ryan formed his economic plan 

*** The battle over Florida: In fact, Romney today campaigns in Florida. And he’s being greeted by headlines like this one from the Miami Herald: “Ryan could be a drag on Romney in Florida.” It is possible for Romney to get to 270 electoral votes without Florida -- but it’s extremely unlikely. If Obama were to win Florida, Romney would need to win CO, IA, NV, NH, NC VA, and WI. In other words, he’d have to run the table. By the way, we can report that according to a Romney-Ryan campaign source, Ryan will make his first visit to Florida next weekend.

*** Today’s back-and-forth: The Romney camp is up with its second TV ad hitting Obama welfare. “Barack Obama has a long history of opposing work for welfare,” the ad goes. “On July 12th, Obama quietly ended work requirements for welfare. You wouldn’t have to work and wouldn’t have to train for a job.” However, as First Read and others have pointed out, it’s a BIG stretch to say that the HHS’s waiver to states ends work requirements for welfare; work requirements are clearly stated in the HHS announcement… Meanwhile, the Obama camp has a web video of Floridians commenting on the Ryan budget plan and its cuts to Medicare. 

*** On the trail: President Obama begins a three-day swing through Iowa. Today, he hits Council Bluffs at 10:15 am ET and Boone at 6:15 pm ET… Romney stumps in Florida, visiting St Augustine at 8:20 am and Miami at 5:25 pm… Paul Ryan stops by the Iowa State Fair at 2:00 pm ET, while Joe Biden campaigns in North Carolina… And First Lady Michelle Obama appears on the “Tonight Show.”

Countdown to GOP convention: 14 days
Countdown to Dem convention: 21 days
Countdown to 1^st presidential debate: 51 days
Countdown to VP debate: 59 days
Countdown to 2^nd presidential debate: 64 days
Countdown to 3^rd presidential debate: 70 days
Countdown to Election Day: 85 days

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*** Monday’s “Daily Rundown” line-up: Ryan reaction with former Obama White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator David Gregory, and House Budget Committee ranking member Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)… Chuck’s interview with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) on his time in the Senate and why it’s time to say goodbye… Live reports from the presidential campaign trail with NBC’s Kristen Welker and Peter Alexander… More 2012 analysis with The Washington Post’s Dan Balz, AP’S Liz Sidoti, Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, msnbc’s Robert Traynham and former Sen. John Sununu (R-NH).

*** Monday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts talks with Obama National Campaign Press Secretary Ben LaBolt, RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer, MSNBC Host Ed Schultz, TheGrio.Com Managing Editor Joy-Ann Reid, Democratic Strategist Chris Kofinis and GOP strategist Hogan Gidley.

*** Monday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include Politico’s Maggie Haberman, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele, the Boston Globe’s Scott Helman, New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait, and the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein.

*** Monday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews NBC’s Chuck Todd, the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA), Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Priorities USA Action co-founder Bill Burton, GOP Strategist John Feehery and Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren.

*** Monday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: Jose Diaz Balart, filling in for Tamron Hall, interviews Dem strategist Jimmy Williams, the Washington Post’s Anne Kornblut, former Bush Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, and Newsweek/Daily Beast’s Zachary Karabell. 

“Newly tapped Republican vice presidential contender Paul Ryan is facing off against President Barack Obama as the front lines in the battle for the White House shift to Iowa,” AP writes.

As one of us wrote over the weekend, Obama’s been campaigning against Ryan and House Republicans for more than a year – and sometimes it’s gotten personal. Obama’s very familiar with Ryan’s plan and has gone in great detail. Expect to hear more of it.

“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.” Obama and Romney are in a statistical tie, with Obama ahead among likely voters, 48-47%.

And there’s this: “[Romney’s] unfavorables are the highest of any Republican nominee at any point in recent history,” said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who helped conduct the poll.

Could Ryan help Romney appeal to younger voters… USA Today calls him the X factor. Maybe that’s Generation X Factor, or P90X Factor.

Romney’s out with another ad hitting Obama on welfare, making similar charges to his last ad which was widely discredited.

The Obama campaign is already out with a web video citing Floridians hitting Romney-Ryan on Medicare.

Here’s Restore Our Future’s latest.

“In the end, Mitt Romney did what many experienced politicos believed he would not do. He went bold,” the Boston Globe’s Johnson writes, adding that Romney “tempted comparisons to the ill-fated 2008 selection of Sarah Palin by nominating a candidate largely untested on the national stage.”

More: “But most importantly, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee signaled to the Democrats that if they want a base war for control of the Oval Office, one that will pit President Obama and liberal Democrats against Mitt Romney and social and fiscal conservatives, they are going to get it during the next three months.”

Tom DeFrank on the pick of Ryan: “Another game-changer, without the catastrophic Sarah Palin overtones.” He also calls Ryan the “Republican Party’s fiscal theologian… Ryan is a sane, sensible, steady pick. But still a serious gamble.”

More: “While Ryan is a serious, intelligent guy, nothing in his background really suggests he's ready to be President tomorrow. His selection creates a ticket of two plain-vanilla guys with zero foreign policy experience. (Romney aides say that's irrelevant - the election will be won or lost on the economy.)

And his draconian budget plan provides a convenient foil for Obama strategists eager to wage ‘MediScare’ warfare this fall.” He also notes that Romney “has failed to present a clear vision of his own beyond shopworn platitudes.” So he adopted Ryan.

“President Obama’s reelection campaign on Sunday accused Mitt Romney of tax-related hypocrisies in his vice presidential search and his eventual selection of Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan,” the Boston Globe writes. Because Ryan would eliminate capital gains in his plan, Romney would pay nearly zero in taxes because that’s where almost all of Romney’s income came from.

Romney is against zeroing out cap gains. He said so in a debate earlier this year and pointed out that he would essentially pay nothing if that were the case.

Tim Pawlenty was on ABC’s This Week where he said he provided “several years” of tax returns to Romney. “I gave him a bunch of tax returns, I don’t remember the exact number of years.”

But remember, there’s more to being a heartbeat away from the presidency than fiscal issues – what about social issues and foreign policy? The New York Times today looks at Ryan’s very conservative social policy: “Though best known as an architect of conservative fiscal policy, Representative Paul D. Ryan has also been an ardent, unwavering foe of abortion rights, has tried to cut off federal money for family planning, has opposed same-sex marriage and has championed the rights of gun owners.”

More: “In nearly 14 years as a Republican congressman from Wisconsin, Mr. Ryan has not only voted for legislation that would cut off federal money for Planned Parenthood and the Title X family planning program, but also backed bills to establish criminal penalties for certain doctors who perform the procedure known as partial-birth abortion.” But: “in a break with many members of his party, Mr. Ryan voted in 2007 for a bill that would prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.”

Speaking of heart beats… the New York Times also writes: For two years, Tea Party lawmakers in the House have been the stubborn barbarians at the gate, strong-arming their often reluctant Republican colleagues by refusing to compromise on spending, taxes, debt or social policy. But Representative Paul D. Ryan’s ascendancy to the No. 2 spot on the Republican ticket is a signal event for a movement that counts him as one of their own. If Mitt Romney wins in November, a Tea Party favorite will be a heartbeat from the Oval Office.”

Reuters: “[A]lthough U.S. voters overwhelmingly cite economic issues as their main concern, they also want reassurance that their leaders can execute the role of commander-in-chief. Introducing Ryan on Saturday, Romney said his new running mate was ready. But Democrats are already aiming at what they say is a dearth of national security experience on the Republican ticket.” And: “Even as he has championed huge cuts in government spending, Ryan has been protective of the Pentagon's budget, those in the defense community say.”

Ryan voted yes on the Iraq war, no on removing troops from Afghanistan and Iraq

The Romney campaign is looking to fill in his foreign policy for him, assigning Dan Senor to him, Maggie Haberman reports.

The Seattle Times: “Like many in politics, when his party’s in power, his budget philosophy differs dramatically from when the other folks are in the White House. For example, he voted yes on President Bush’s expansion of Medicare’s drug benefit. In 2005, the Washington Post reported that the White House had revised its estimated costs of the program: ‘[T]he new Medicare prescription drug benefit will cost more than $1.2 trillion in the coming decade, a much higher price tag than President Bush suggested when he narrowly won passage of the law in late 2003…. As recently as September, Medicare chief Mark B. McClellan said the new drug package would cost $534 billion over 10 years.’ As Bruce Bartlett noted in 2009, “the drug benefit had no dedicated financing, no offsets and no revenue-raisers; 100% of the cost simply added to the federal budget deficit.” Now Ryan said he’d take a different tack.”

And: “Back in 2005, Bush was arguing for private accounts. Ryan introduced a bill that would have “create[d] new private accounts funded entirely by borrowing, with no benefit cuts!” but at the time the Bush administration had concerns about it and deemed it ‘irresponsible.’” Get this: Ryan voted against Democrats’ push to make “new spending or new tax cuts … offset by revenue increases or spending decreases.” He also “voted ‘yes’ for TARP, Economic Stimulus HR 5140, the $15 billion bailout for GM and Chrysler.”

Tax shenanigans… The Boston Globe: “It is one of the most striking elements of Mitt Romney’s financial fortune. He has used the seemingly bland investment vehicle known as an individual retirement account — established by Congress to help average Americans save a modest amount for retirement — to shield at least $20 million and as much as $100 million from initial taxes.”

More: “Romney has not provided details about how his IRA grew so large. But Romney associates with direct knowledge about the matter said Bain Capital partners used their IRAs as a pool of investment money, enabling them to make personal investments in Bain deals, many of which earned spectacular returns. Much as a lower-dollar investor might pick mutual funds for an IRA, the Bain partners could make side investments in the firm’s deals and then watch as their retirement funds grew. … critics are questioning whether Romney went too far in deferring or avoiding taxes by his use of an IRA, noting that Congress has put limits on contributions to prevent too much income from being shielded from taxation.”

MISSOURI: Claire McCaskill went on Fox and Friends this morning touting her moderate bona fides, including that she was rated 50 on scale of 1-100 of senators and is against earmarks, which Akin is for.

WISCONSIN: The man running against Ryan this fall in his congressional district, Rob Zerban, says he’s raised $75,000 since Ryan was picked.

CHICAGO, Ill. -- Secret Service agents, bomb-sniffing dogs and police cordons usually mean a high-level politician or dignitary is nearby.

For the residents of a certain Kenwood enclave, it also means the neighbors are back in town. That was the scene Sunday evening on a certain stretch of Greenwood Avenue here as President Obama hosted some of his closest, $40,000 check-wielding friends for the first-ever fundraiser at his home.

Yuri Gripas / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama walks through the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago on Sunday.

Standing in a corner of the front yard of his classic Georgian-style brick home, the president greeted around 75 supporters sprawled out on his manicured green lawn, the lushness of which the president commented on.

“I have to say, the lawn hasn’t looked this good in a while. But I figured, but at least Michelle figured, that if everyone was coming over we ought to neaten up a little bit,” he said.

Speaking from a small stage that was surrounded with a small hedge, the president made light of the fact that he was once again asking his deep-pocketed donors to pony up.

“Being friends with a politician is a little bit like having a child perpetually in college because every so often you’ve got to write a big check. The good news is I’m about to graduate,” he joked as the crowd laughed.

But the comic asides did contain a serious undertone – that Obama is locked in a brutal spending war with his Republican rival Mitt Romney, and is currently being outspent.

Paul Ryan welcomed home with massive rally in Wisconsin

He cautioned his guests that the next three months of the campaign were not going to be easy, referring to, as he has frequently in recent appearances, the Olympics to make a campaign analogy. 

“I just want to remind you this is not going to be a race like Usain Bolt where we’re like 40 yards ahead and we can just start jogging 10 feet before the finish line,” Obama said, name-dropping the famed Jamaican sprinter. “We’re going to have to run through the tape.”

After the quick stop at his own home, the president went back to once again being a guest as he attended two more fundraisers, both at homes in his neighborhood but none that could be called the Family Home of the United States.

Slideshow: As it happens: Obama's fourth year in office

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

The president's fourth year at the White House in pictures — follow along as it happens.

Launch slideshow

Jeffrey Phelps / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his vice presidential running mate Rep. Paul Ryan a welcome home rally Sunday, Aug. 12, in Waukesha, Wis.

WAUKESHA, Wis.-- The largest crowd of the campaign so far for a Mitt Romney event welcomed home favorite son Rep. Paul Ryan at a massive rally here in the congressman's district Sunday night, pushing the GOP's vice presidential nominee to tears as he took the stage, setting off cheers with two simple words:

"Hi mom."

With that, voice cracking, Ryan showed his Wisconsin credentials to a crowd the Romney campaign hopes will be emblematic of the charismatic congressman's support in the Badger state, a reliably Democratic enclave the Republican candidate hopes to turn red this fall. 

"My veins run with cheese, bratwurst, a little Spotted Cow, Leinie's, and some Miller," Ryan said, mentioning two well-known local beers. "I was raised on the Packers, Badgers, Bucks and Brewers. I like to hunt here, I like to fish here, I like to snowmobile here. I even think ice fishing is interesting."

"I'm a Wisconsinite through and through," Ryan said to cheers from a crowd which contained many members of Ryan's extended family, and which the campaign estimated to be more than ten thousand strong, likely the largest turnout ever for a Romney event.

The energy generated by Ryan seemed to inspire the man at the top of ticket, who took on a heckler midway through his own remarks, then turned the moment into an indictment of President Obama's campaign, who's tactics have riled Romney in recent weeks.

Obama gives Ryan a double-edged welcome to the race

"You see young man, this group here is respectful of other people’s rights to be  heard," Romney said as the heckler was removed. "And you ought to find yourself a different place to be disruptive, because here we believe in listening to people with dignity and respect."

"There’s no question but if you follow the campaign of Barack Obama, he’s going to do everything in his power to make this the lowest, meanest negative campaign in history. We’re not going to let that happen," Romney continued. "This is going to be a campaign about ideas about the future of America. This is a campaign about greatness, about America’s future for your children, for the world. Mr. President take you campaign out of the gutter, let’s talk about the real issues that America faces."

Romney and Ryan were introduced by two other leading figures in the Republican party nationally, both born and raised here in Wisconsin: RNC Chairman Reince Preibus and Governor Scott Walker, who recently survived a recall election and has become a rallying point for Republicans nationwide.

Mooresville, N.C. -- On their second full day of campaigning together, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are taking advantage of enormous crowds and an intense media spotlight to help reshape their public images, and to defend one another's personal biographies, with a particular focus on shoring up perceived weaknesses.

Romney, speaking last, praised Ryan's work in Congress, where he has spent the last seven terms representing Wisconsin's First District, but pitched to a crowd of nearly 2,000 that Ryan had gone to Washington at the expense of his career, rather than as a career.

"His career ambition was not to go to Washington. That is not what he wanted to do, but he became concerned about what was happening in the country and wanted to get America back on track and so he put aside the plans he had for his career and said I'm going to go and serve, and he's done that and he's put the country and policies to get America right again ahead of ambition," Romney told the crowd at a NASCAR technical facility here.

But that interpretation of Ryan's career clashes with his actual biography. After graduating with a degree in economics and political science, Ryan moved to Washington to work as a congressional staffer, having already become familiar with campaigns as a volunteer for Ohio congressman John Boehner, now House speaker. Ryan returned the private sector and Wisconsin only briefly, before being elected to Congress at age 28.

Ryan's career in the public sector has been seen by some political analysts as a potential liability on the Romney ticket, where executive competence and a Washington-outsider persona have long been the hallmarks of the campaign. Yesterday, Ryan suggested his legislative skills could help Romney in governing more than they might hurt the brand in campaigning.

“I believe that my record of getting things done in Congress will be a very helpful complement to Governor Romney’s executive and private sector success outside of Washington,” Ryan said in Norfolk.

Ryan also returned the favor for Romney today, burnishing the GOP nominee's biography, including his tenure as head of the 2002 Olympics, and as Massachusetts governor, an oft-overlooked period for a candidate who prefers to focus on his business experience.

"His country asked him to move to Salt Lake, to turn it around and save the Olympics, he did it and we're so proud of that moment," Ryan said. "The contrast could not be more clear. When he was governor of Massachusetts, he balanced the budget without raising taxes. President Obama has given us budgets with no balance ever and a lot of new taxes."

The setting at NASCAR's technical institute was designed to let another bit of Romney's personal biography and personality peek out: he's a car guy, and the Romney logo-emblazoned stock car behind him was too good to resist.

"You see as a boy my dad made Ramblers, alright? And I only dreamed of cars like that," Romney said, eyeing the car. "To have my name on a car like that it's just too much."

"It must have been tough for my girlfriend to be able to go out on that first date with me in that red rambler we had," Romney said, introducing his wife Ann, who spoke on stage for the first time since the Ryan announcement.

For the Romney campaign, today's event in which thousands of supporters overflowed into parking lots outside, is expected to be the smallest of three major rallies here, and in Wisconsin.

Most of the energy at the event came from seeing the ticket for the first time, but some, surely, came from stock car driver Darrell Waltrip who, pacing the stage in the pre-program, offered advice for Romney seemingly ripped from the Will Ferrell movie "Talladega Nights," and got the crowd cheering uproariously.

"I have a little advice for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: Boogity Boogity Boogity!"

For more than a year, President Obama has been trying to run against Paul Ryan and House Republicans.

And now -- with Ryan’s selection as Mitt Romney’s running mate -- he is.

It started in April of last year when the president invited the Wisconsin congressman and House Budget Committee chairman to hear his speech on fiscal policy at George Washington University here in Washington.

Asking Ryan to be there might have seemed like a gesture of good will toward Ryan, who had just weeks earlier unveiled his controversial budget.

Instead, sitting in the front row, Ryan listened as his plan -- and by extension Ryan himself -- was eviscerated by the president of the United States.

As Obama picked it apart, Ryan grew more annoyed, shaking his head at times and scribbling notes. As soon as the speech was over, Ryan darted out of the room.

For all of the policy discussion that will happen over the next several weeks, and deep dives into Ryan’s budget, the episode highlights that politics can be awfully personal. It also began the president’s year-long effort to draw a very distinct line between his vision for the country and that of congressional Republicans, led by Ryan and his budget after the 2010 GOP midterm sweep of the House. With Congress’ abysmal ratings, it was an easy foil. 

Perhaps nothing provides clearer evidence for how Obama will go after the Romney-Ryan ticket than three speeches Obama has given in the past year -- that one in April 2011, another months later in Kansas, and one earlier this year before newspaper editors.

Different visions

“I was excited when we got invited to attend his speech today,” Ryan said, reacting to the April 2011 speech at the time. “I thought the president’s invitation … was an olive branch.”

It was not.

“We have a number of members of Congress here today. I'm grateful for all of you taking the time to attend,” Obama said benignly near the beginning of his speech. That was just minutes before he would launch his broadside on Ryan’s plan, which the president dismissed as not “serious” and “deeply pessimistic.”

Romney told NBC’s Chuck Todd this week he wanted a vice president with a “vision for the country.” Obama swatted at that vision during the George Washington University speech.

“It’s a vision that says if our roads crumble and our bridges collapse, we can’t afford to fix them,” Obama said. “If there are bright young Americans who have the drive and the will but not the money to go to college, we can’t afford to send them. … It’s a vision that says America can’t afford to keep the promise we’ve made to care for our seniors.”

He went on, slamming the plan on health care, education, clean energy and tax breaks for the wealthy.

“[W]orst of all,” Obama declared, “this is a vision that says even though Americans can’t afford to invest in education at current levels, or clean energy, even though we can’t afford to maintain our commitment on Medicare and Medicaid, we can somehow afford more than $1 trillion in new tax breaks for the wealthy.  Think about that. …

“This vision is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America. Ronald Reagan’s own budget director said there’s nothing ‘serious’ or ‘courageous’ about this plan.”

You can bet Ryan will remember those words.

‘Not on the level’

Obama may not have mentioned Ryan by name in the speech, but he did a couple of days later when he thought no one was listening.

"When Paul Ryan says his priority is to make sure, you know, he's just being America's accountant, trying to be responsible … this is the same guy who voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that cost as much as my health care bill -- but wasn't paid for. So it's not on the level,” Obama said at a closed-door fundraiser after the media was ushered out, but with the microphones still on.

‘You’re-on-your-own economics’

In December, during the height of the Republican primary, the president traveled to Osawatomie, Kan., where he delivered a major economic address. There, he again made it clear he was running against Republicans in Congress and conservative economic ideology.

“[I]n 2001 and 2003, Congress passed two of the most expensive tax cuts for the wealthy in history,” Obama said. “And what did it get us? … Remember that in those same years, thanks to some of the same folks who are now running Congress, we had weak regulation; we had little oversight; and what did it get us?”

He added this line: “We simply cannot return to this brand of ‘you’re-on-your-own’ economics….”

‘This is what they’re running on’

This past April, a year after his speech at George Washington University, Obama refined his attack, slamming Ryan’s budget – and doing it with specifics.

“Instead of moderating their views even slightly, the Republicans running Congress right now have doubled down and proposed a budget so far to the right it makes the Contract with America look like the New Deal,” Obama said before the Associated Press luncheon. Obama then added that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had called it “right-wing social engineering” on Meet the Press.

(After Ryan’s speech Saturday, Gingrich called the pick “courageous” and “the largest step the GOP has taken towards solving the USA’s problems since Reagan and Kemp.”)

Obama continued, trying to tie Romney to the plan.

“And yet this isn’t a budget supported by some small group in the Republican Party,” Obama said. “This is now the party’s governing platform. This is what they’re running on. One of my potential opponents, Governor Romney, has said that he hoped a similar version of this plan from last year would be introduced as a bill on day one of his presidency. He said that he’s very supportive of this new budget. And he even called it ‘marvelous,’ which is a word you don’t often hear when it comes to describing a budget. It’s a word you don’t often hear generally.”

He went on to skewer Ryan’s budget, making the most detailed case this election on it. He cited specific numbers and consequences of cuts to financial aid, medical and research grants, clean energy, education, the Department of Justice, FBI, national parks.

The president claimed, “We wouldn’t have the capacity to enforce the laws that protect the air we breathe, the water we drink or the food that we eat.”

He even said Ryan’s budget “would likely result in more flight cancellations, delays and the complete elimination of air traffic control services” as a consequence of the cuts proposed to the Federal Aviation Administration.

That’s not to mention Medicare, which Obama warned would become a “voucher plan” and “end Medicare as we know it.”

“If health care costs rise faster than the amount of the voucher, as, by the way, they’ve been doing for decades, that’s too bad,” Obama said of the plan. “Seniors bear the risk. If the voucher isn’t enough to buy a private plan with the specific doctors and care that you need, that’s too bad.”

He continued, “So most experts will tell you the way this voucher plan encourages savings is not through better care at cheaper cost. The way these private insurance companies save money is by designing and marketing plans to attract the youngest and healthiest seniors, cherry-picking, leaving the older and sicker seniors in traditional Medicare, where they have access to a wide range of doctors and guaranteed care. But that, of course, makes the traditional Medicare program even more expensive and raises premiums even further. The net result is that our country will end up spending more on health care, and the only reason the government will save any money, it won’t be on our books, is because we shifted it to seniors. They’ll bear more of the costs themselves. It’s a bad idea, and it will ultimately end Medicare as we know it.”

Expect to hear a lot of that in the next few weeks.

Lines are drawn

Ryan proved again during his speech Saturday why he is one of the best ideological economic messengers in his party. He may make a tough policy charge, but he does it with a soft edge.

“No one disputes President Obama inherited a difficult situation. And, in his first two years, with his party in complete control of Washington, he passed nearly every item on his agenda,” Ryan said before hitting the president hard. “But that didn't make things better. In fact, we find ourselves in a nation facing debt, doubt and despair.”

That will be the central Romney-Ryan argument – President Obama tried, but his policies failed.

Obama’s argument – we tried it Republicans’ way, and it’s what got us into this mess in the first place.

And now Romney has handed Obama the specifics the president has been trying to tie to the presumptive Republican nominee. (“This is what they’re running on. … He even called it ‘marvelous.’”)

The Obama campaign is already out with a web video with this message: “With Romney and Ryan, the choice for women, the elderly, veterans, students, middle-class families, couldn't be clearer.” It closes with: "Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: Back to the failed top-down policies that crashed our economy."

There are already indications the Romney campaign may try to give the candidate some wiggle room on the Ryan budget. According to Romney campaign talking points reported by CNN, Romney “will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance.”

But it is going to be very difficult for Romney to try to separate himself from Ryan’s plan with Ryan on the ticket.

The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol and Stephen Hayes, the same authors who pushed for the Ryan pick, wrote before the selection that Romney had given “a clear and unequivocal defense of Ryan’s entitlement reforms. No hedging, no qualification.” And: “Romney has praised Ryan’s budget without qualification.” And they called the Ryan budget “in a sense, the official Republican governing roadmap.”

Picking Ryan will be seen as a full embrace of the Ryan plan. If it’s not, economic conservatives would likely pounce.

The two sides will have starkly different economic messages. The lines of division couldn’t be more clearly drawn. Not only did Romney get his man, but so did Obama.

ON A CAMPAIGN BUS IN VIRGINIA -- When Mitt Romney introduced Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate today, it was the culmination of a still-mysterious process that reached its climactic final stages on Aug 1, when Romney told Beth Myers, his former chief of staff, that he had made a decision: he wanted the House budget chairman on the ticket.

That decision date, supplied by campaign advisers, means that Romney selected Ryan before the congressman's boomlet in conservative media, and on the very day of his return from a week-long trip abroad.

Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney pushes a shopping cart into Hunters Shop and Save in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire Aug. 6, 2012.

Five days passed before the two men could meet, but this past Sunday, Aug. 5, Ryan came to Romney for a meeting, likely at the presumptive nominee's home in Wolfeboro, N.H., and accepted the offer.

That afternoon, senior staffers huddled at Romney's secluded estate on Lake Winnepesaukee for hours. Strategist Stuart Stevens was there, as were senior advisers Eric Fehrnstrom and Bob White, along with Myers, the head of Romney's VP search. Over the course of an hour in early afternoon, cars began to peel away from the cul-de-sac, but there was no sign of Ryan, who managed to arrive and depart undetected, despite reporters gathered in town for the start of Romney's protective pool the next day.

At the time, one senior adviser told NBC News the meeting was a "strategy session," that had nothing to do with selecting a vice president, a remark that was likely intended to preserve the secrecy of the selection process.

In Wisconsin, there was no sign of Ryan at his home or around town that Sunday, which was also the day of the Oak Creek shooting at a Sikh temple, in the congressman's district.

NBC's Alex Moe contributed to this report.

Mitt Romney's selection of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan as his running mate stirred prompt conservative enthusiasm on Saturday while Democrats vowed to link Romney to less popular elements of the Wisconsin congressman's budget plans.

Romney introduced Ryan to voters at a rally this morning in Norfolk, Va., where he highlighted the ambitious budget proposals that have made Ryan a hero to Republicans -- and a lightning rod for liberals.

"With energy and vision, Paul Ryan has become an intellectual leader of the Republican Party," Romney said upon introducing his new No. 2. "He understands the fiscal challenges facing America: our exploding deficits and crushing debt – and the fiscal catastrophe that awaits us if we don’t change course."

Darren Hauck / Reuters

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (L) (R-WI) introduces U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R) as he addresses supporters at Lawrence University during a campaign stop in Appleton, Wisconsin, in this March 30, 2012 file photo. Romney appeared poised to name Congressman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate on August 11, 2012 in a move that will frame the November 6 election in large part over how to reduce government spending and debt. REUTERS/Darren Hauck/Files (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS)

In picking Ryan, Romney satisfied the clamor in his party's base for a "bold" pick, which, for many in conservative circles, meant naming Ryan himself. It was a direct effort at energizing the GOP base, with whom Romney has sometimes had a fractured relationship.

"This really energizes the ticket enormously," Bay Buchanan, an outside adviser to the Romney campaign, told NBC News.

Elected Republicans -- from Ryan's home-state governor, Scott Walker, to the other candidates Romney had considered as running mates -- likewise hailed the decision.

"Paul Ryan is a courageous reformer who understands our nation’s challenges, has proposed bold policy solutions to solve them, and has shown the courage to stand up to President Obama and other Washington politicians trying to tear him down," said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in a statement.  Rubio was another favorite of conservatives to round out the ticket.

But Democrats moved quickly to tie Romney to the controversial proposals that Ryan has offered in his two years as chairman of the House Budget Committee.

"In naming Congressman Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney has chosen a leader of the House Republicans who shares his commitment to the flawed theory that new budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy, while placing greater burdens on the middle class and seniors, will somehow deliver a stronger economy," said Jim Messina, the campaign manager for President Barack Obama.

Messina charged Ryan with seeking to "end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher system, shifting thousands of dollars in health care costs to seniors" -- a line of attack sure to populate Democratic talking points.

Democrats had found success in attacking Ryan's first budget for its Medicare proposals, helping them to win a special election in upstate New York that was transformed into a referendum on the Ryan plan.

Obama campaign releases have been peppered with references to the "Romney-Ryan" plan now for months, and Democrats expressed renewed optimism that Ryan's selection as Romney's running mate would have a similarly positive effect on their downballot fortunes.

"I think politically speaking, this choice is welcome news to the right wing of the Republican Party. It's essentially telling independent voters to take a hike," Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the budget committee, told NBC News. "In that sense, I think it will help the president and other Democratic candidates win the middle."

Van Hollen and Ryan have struck up a rapport during their time together on the committee, and the Maryland Democrat noted that he likes his colleague very much personally. "It's not been a food fight," Van Hollen said of the committee's work.

Ryan's selection is almost certain to inject his budget plan into the center of the election, but Romney may take strides toward de-emphasizing thornier elements of those budgets.

Buchanan argued that Ryan's selection didn't represent a full embrace of the controversial budgets authored by the Wisconsin Republican the last two years.

"There's no question that while Mitt Romney certainly praised Paul Ryan for his budget, but the two of them do disagree in some areas as to how it should be done," she said Saturday morning. "It's not an embrace, line by line, of the Ryan plan. Mitt Romney has his own plan."

Of Democrats' near-certain onslaught against the new ticket based on Ryan's budget plan, Buchanan added: "What the Democrats do is their business, and we'll see if they're successful. We can't control what the Democrats do. They've accused Romney of murdering a man's wife, so they'll go to any extreme they want."

Updated at 10:45 am ET Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney introduced his choice as running mate, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, 42, Saturday morning at a campaign event in Norfolk, Va.

Romney portrayed the Wisconsin congressman as “an intellectual leader of the Republican Party” and a man who “understands the fiscal catastrophe that awaits us if we don’t change course.”

He called him a legislator who had shown the ability to work with members of both parties, saying, “In a city that’s far too often characterized by pettiness and personal attacks, Paul Ryan is a shining exception. He doesn't demonize his opponents.” 

He added that “a lot of people in the other party ... might disagree with Paul Ryan; I don't know anyone that doesn't respect his character and judgment.”

Romney told the crowd, “At a time when the president’s campaign is taking American politics to new lows, we're going to do something differently. We’re going to talk about aspirations and American ideals and about bringing people together to solve the urgent problems facing our nation.”

Ryan then dashed onto the platform from the battleship U.S.S. Wisconsin docked at Norfolk.

Ryan referred to Romney, the former head of Bain Capital, as “someone who knows from experience that if you have a small business you did build that” – a reference to President Obama’s recent statement on the campaign trail that “if you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Obama argued that businesses benefit from government infrastructure and public sector investments.

Alluding to the entitlements and debt problems that loom over the next few decades, Ryan said Obama and Democrats in Washington “have refused to make difficult decisions because they are more worried about their next election than they are about the next generation.”

Referring to the nation’s sluggish economy and its growing burden of debt, Ryan said, “We can turn this thing around, … but it will take leadership and the courage to tell you the truth.”

NBC News

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan appear at a campaign event in Norfolk, Va., on Saturday.

Ryan also trumpeted Republicans’ faith in private sector entrepreneurs, saying, “We look at one another's success with pride, not resentment, because we know, as more Americans work hard, take risks, succeed, more people will prosper, our communities will benefit, and individual lives will be uplifted and improved.”

That theme is similar to ones Ryan has sounded in the past. He has been outspoken in saying that America must be “an upward mobility society.”

He told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow last February, “We don't want a safety net that turns into a hammock that lulls people into dependency in this country. We want people to get up on their feet and grab that higher rung of the economic ladder.”

He said, “We don't believe in class division. We believe in growth and prosperity, helping people when they are down on their luck get back on their feet, and pro-growth economic policies that put America in the lead, that make us competitive, that stop tearing people down in this zero-sum thinking.”

A senior adviser told NBC News that Romney informed Beth Myers, who headed his search for a running mate, of his decision to select Ryan on Aug. 1.

Live vote: Is Ryan a good choice?

As the author of an ambitious plan to redesign the Medicare program for older and disabled Americans, Ryan has long been the target of Democratic attacks.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina issued a statement Saturday saying Ryan's Medicare proposal "would end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher system, shifting thousands of dollars in health care costs to seniors." 

If enacted, Ryan’s proposal would be the most far-reaching change in Medicare since the program was created in 1965.

In 2011, one Democratic group ran an ad showing a man – presumably Ryan – pushing a terrified elderly woman in a wheelchair off a cliff.

Ryan’s plan would gradually increase the Medicare eligibility age to 67. This phased-in increase in the eligibility age would start in 2023.

Ryan’s proposal would do away with Medicare’s open-ended payments for those born in 1958 and later, (that is, people who turn 65 in 2023 or later).

Instead, beginning in 2023, people in Medicare would be given a choice of private plans competing alongside the traditional fee-for-service option.

Medicare would provide a payment to pay for or offset the premium of the plan chosen by the senior. The payments would be higher for low-income people and lower for high-income people. The payments would grow over time but would not necessarily keep pace with the increase in the cost of medical care.

The Congressional Budget Office, in an assessment last year, said Ryan’s plan would result in “much lower deficits and debt in the long run.” But the CBO also found that under Ryan’s redesigned Medicare, “most elderly people would pay more for their health care than they would pay under the current Medicare system.”

One prominent Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon joined with Ryan last year on a proposal to redesign Medicare.

Wyden said in an opinion piece in the Huffington Post that the Wyden-Ryan proposal was not a finished piece of legislation but “simply a policy paper intended to start a conversation about how Democrats and Republicans might work together to uphold the Medicare Guarantee.”

Live vote: Is Ryan a good choice?

The Oregon Democrat also added, “Wyden-Ryan doesn't eliminate the traditional Medicare plan, instead it guarantees that seniors who want to enroll in Medicare's traditional fee for service plan will always have that option.”

He added that, “Wyden-Ryan doesn't privatize Medicare because Medicare beneficiaries already have the option of enrolling in private health insurance plans. Wyden-Ryan makes those private plans more robust and accountable by forcing them to -- for the first time -- compete directly with traditional Medicare.”

But Wyden also said, “Some Republicans will undoubtedly declare their support for Wyden-Ryan without knowing what that means or believing in its principles. Mitt Romney, for example, claims to have helped write Wyden-Ryan even though I have never spoken to him about Medicare reform.”

As part of its fiscal year 2013 budget resolution, which it approved in March, the House supported Ryan’s Medicare reform plan. The vote was 228 to 191, with no Democrats voting for the proposal and 10 Republicans voting against it.

Ryan has offered some of his ideas on tax reform in interviews with David Gregory on NBC's Meet the Press. Last May, Ryan said, "What we're saying about taxes is take the tax shelters and the loopholes away from the well-connected and the well-off so we can lower tax rates for everybody so we can allow small businesses to grow and compete."

He also said on Meet the Press in 2011: "Instead of job-killing tax increases, why don't we just stop subsidizing wealthy people? I mean, let's go after the crony capitalism, the corporate welfare in the tax code, in spending. And why don't we income-adjust our spending programs so that we don't subsidize wealthy people as much? I think that's a better idea to get more savings in the budget, get our debt down without doing economic damage."

Ryan, first elected to the House in 1998, worked in college as a staffer for Sen. Bob Kasten of Wisconsin, and later as a speechwriter for Jack Kemp and William Bennett and as an aide to Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas.

Ryan voted for the bailout of the financial sector in 2008, as well as the auto industry bailout. He also voted for the 2003 bill to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare and has voted this year to repeal President Obama’s health care overhaul.

NBC's Garrett Haake contributed to this report.