If you're already not familiar with the term, you'll certainly hear it over the next three months -- the Ryan budget.

What is it?

It substantially restructures Medicare; cuts Medicaid, food stamps, and transportation infrastructure; and it reduces the top tax rate from 35% to 25%. Regarding Medicare, the 2011 version of the Ryan budget would transform it from a government-run program to one where future seniors receive a voucher or premium support to purchase health insurance from private insurers. The Congressional Budget Office said the plan would force most seniors to pay more for their health care  than under the current Medicare system. The latest version, however, would give future seniors the choice of purchasing private insurance or through Medicare's traditional fee-for-service model, and it received the backing of at least one Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Ryan and his allies say a bold plan - reforming entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid - and slashing discretionary spending is needed to reduce the deficit and debt. But critics argue that the pain comes primarily from the poor and middle class. An analysis from the liberal-leaning Center on Budget Policies and Priorities says that 62% of the spending cuts in the Ryan budget would come from low-income programs, while 37% of its tax benefits would go to those making more than $1 million per year.

With all signs pointing to Mitt Romney selecting Paul Ryan as his VP running mate tomorrow in Norfolk, VA, Romney went bold. And here is First Read's looks at the strengths and weaknesses Ryan would bring the GOP presidential ticket.

Strengths:

• As chairman of the House Budget Committee, the 42-year-old Ryan is a young rising star in the GOP, and has become their chief spokesman when it comes to reducing the deficit and debt.
• Romney picking Ryan as his running mate would signal that he’s doubling down on an austerity/deficit-reduction message. Indeed, while the Obama campaign and Democrats could point to visible improvements with the economy over the past three years (a lower unemployment rate, stronger GDP growth), there hasn’t been much progress in reducing the deficit. 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).
• Ryan hails from a battleground state -- Wisconsin -- where polls show Romney currently trailing Obama. Obama actually won Ryan’s district in 2008, 51%-47%.
• Comfort level: When Romney campaigned with Ryan in the lead-up to the April 3 Wisconsin primary, the two men demonstrated a rapport that we haven’t seen with other Romney surrogates.
• He would be a person who could please both the conservative intelligentsia and the Tea Party base.

Weaknesses:

• Ryan’s budget plan has become a lightning rod, and it will be a focus of Democratic attacks in the fall. The most controversial component of the plan is that it significantly transforms Medicare, which is regarded as the government’s most popular program.
• In addition to Medicare, Ryan was one of the driving forces to partially privatize Social Security after George W. Bush’s victory in the 2004 presidential election.
• There are also holes in Ryan’s budget-hawk armor: He voted for some of the biggest drivers of the deficit/debt -- the Bush tax cuts, the Iraq war, and the Medicare prescription-drug benefit, all of which weren’t paid for. Moreover, Ryan voted against the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles recommendations.
• Has never held statewide office and has no foreign-policy experience. Both could be liabilities.
• As a member of Congress, Ryan currently works in -- and is a relatively high-profile member of -- one of America’s least popular institutions.
• And while Romney has criticized Obama for not having private-sector experience, the same is largely true of Ryan: As the New Yorker has written, Ryan briefly worked for his family’s business as a “marketing consultant,” but most of his adult life has been spent as a congressman, congressional aide, or speechwriter/analyst at Jack Kemp’s Empower America think tank.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 10, 2012.

Mitt Romney's campaign has announced that the presumptive GOP nominee has chosen House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate.  The two candidates will appear together at a campaign event in Norfolk, Va., Saturday morning.

The official announcement will be in front of the U.S.S. Wisconsin -- which just happens to be Ryan's home state.

After three sources close to the Romney campaign indicated to NBC News late Friday night that Ryan would be the pick, the Romney camp issued a press release just after 7:00 am ET, stating: “Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan: America’s Comeback Team.” Around the same time, the campaign’s “VP app” also announced that Ryan would be the choice.

The Romney campaign billed the ticket "America's comeback team" in the release announcing the decision, saying that Ryan "has worked tirelessly leading the effort to reign in federal spending and increase accountability to taxpayers."

With recent national polls showing Romney trailing President Barack Obama, Ryan is a bold pick. He will excite economic conservatives, and is considered one of his party's rising stars.

Related: Paul Ryan's strengths and weaknesses

But his budget plan -- which would substantially transform Medicare and Medicaid -- is a lightning rod. In fact, Democrats argue that Ryan's selection marks an opportunity to highlight Ryan's desired changes to Medicare, which include giving future seniors a voucher or premium support to help pay for their health insurance. Under Ryan's plan, future seniors would have the choice of using the voucher/premium support to purchase private insurance or through Medicare's traditional fee-for-service model.

Recommended: Pawlenty: 'I'm not disappointed'

"We've spent 18 months trying to make House races about their plan for Medicare and Mitt Romney just did it for us overnight," said one Democratic operative.

Ryan had been the focus of intense VP speculation for the last few days. Washington economic conservatives -- including the Wall Street Journal editorial page and the Weekly Standard -- have pushed for his selection.

Related: What is the Ryan budget?

In addition, Romney told NBC's Chuck Todd on Thursday he was looking for someone with "a vision for the country," who "adds something to the political discourse about the direction of the country”  -- a sign that he might make a bold pick in Ryan.

At 11:11 pm ET, the Romney campaign announced that it would be making its VP selection on Saturday. And as First Read reported earlier this week, the VP finalists were Ryan, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman.

NBCNews.com's Mike O'Brien contributed to this report.

"Is Mitt Romney the GOP's future, or is he the GOP's past? That's one way to look at his upcoming choice of a running mate. As Mr. Romney gears up for that announcement, the political world is tripping through the usual speculation about which veep candidate offers Mr. Romney the biggest Electoral College bang. Can Rob Portman deliver Ohio? Can Marco Rubio help with Florida? Would Bobby Jindal stir the minority vote? Might not Kelly Ayotte tap those younger voters, and women? Blah, blah, blah. As Mr. Romney is fond of saying, this election is big—very big—and will come down to a "fundamental choice." The Republican means that in the sense of his own philosophical differences with Barack Obama. But that "choice" might just as easily be a reference to today's two wings of the GOP—the old political operators, and the new aggressive reformers," The Wall Street Journal writes.

PAWLENTY: The Washington Post headline: "Pawlenty patiently waiting for payoff."

RYAN: Politico on why Paul Ryan's Washington lineage could be a risk for Mitt Romney.

The New York Post headline: "Don't fear Paul Ryan"

The New York Daily News: "He wasn’t hired. Despite his wishes, Donald Trump will not be among the featured speakers at the Republican National Convention, sources confirmed Thursday. Trump had been fueling talk that he was going to get a coveted speaking slot during the GOP lovefest later this month — but his team claims he will still play a “major role” in Tampa."

Latent conservative trepidation toward Mitt Romney has resurfaced to a degree in recent days as it relates to the presumptive GOP nominee's search for a running mate and renewed defense of health reform in Massachusetts.

Prominent voices on the right have begun urging Romney to settle on a "bold" choice as his running mate, specifically Wisconsin GOP Rep. Paul Ryan, the author of an ambitious budget proposal that has made him a darling among conservatives.

Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney waves to people gathered across the street as he leaves a finance event Aug. 9 in New York.

Separately, the campaign is weathering a minor conservative uproar associated with a spokeswoman's response to a critical ad from a pro-Obama super PAC that suggested Romney was indirectly responsible for a woman's cancer death because her husband lost his insurance after his Bain-owned employer laid him off.

"To that point, you know, if people had been in Massachusetts, under Governor Romney’s health care plan, they would have had health care," the spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, said Wednesday on Fox News in reference to the health reform law Massachusetts enacted while Romney was governor.

The comment earned an immediate rebuke from activist conservatives who had expressed concern about Romney's ability to argue the case against President Obama's health care law because of its similarities to the Massachusetts reforms.

RedState's Erick Erickson said it was "the moment all the doubts about Romney resurfaced on the right," while conservative columnist Ann Coulter called for the spokeswoman's firing.

"It takes a Republican candidate who's willing to put the fists out there and fight back hard. The response, for example, to this lying, smearing super PAC ad accusing Romney of a murder is not to talk about Romneycare," Michelle Malkin said Wednesday evening on Fox News. "It's to talk about the Obama jobs death toll and the Beltway jobs massacre and the thousands of real workers out there who have had their pensions and health care stripped."

It underscored the tenuous relationship Romney has had with his party's stalwarts, whom he struggled to charm throughout the Republican primary earlier this year.

While Republicans have largely rallied around Romney, his relationship with the right seems to be mostly a marriage of convenience -- one in which Romney represents the best, if imperfect, chance to defeat President Barack Obama in November.

To that end, the June NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll contained a telling statistic: 58 percent of registered voters who said they planned to vote for Romney said their vote was more about voting against Obama. Thirty-five percent said their vote was mostly in favor of Romney.

It's also emblematic of the current split within the GOP between activists who favor a more strongly ideological approach and those who wish to wed political strategy with policy goals. Romney, to many conservatives, firmly represents the latter approach.

That sentiment has manifested itself in some conservatives' demand that Romney put forth a more digestible jobs plan, or use more aggressive rhetoric toward Obama. It's also contributed to a growing drumbeat in favor of putting Ryan on the GOP ticket.

"Romney has to carry the argument to President Barack Obama. The state of the economy alone isn’t enough to convince people that Romney has better ideas to create jobs. Neither is his résumé," National Review editor Rich Lowry wrote Wednesday in Politico. "Romney needs to make the case for his program, and perhaps no one is better suited to contribute to this effort than Ryan."

Agitation in favor of someone like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie points toward the same sentiment, too. Some conservatives are looking for a pick that would plainly and forcefully make the case for an alternative conservative vision to Obama's.

It's one of the reasons that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker emerged as such a hero to Republicans. His collective-bargaining reforms in Wisconsin were nothing short of audacious, but he survived a recall effort with even more political capital. And now Walker, and other policy gurus like Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, have in recent months pressed Romney to offer a more affirmative policy agenda.

Whether Romney can quell this eternal tension on the right is a question that might never have an answer. He has shown the capacity, though, to rally the GOP behind his candidacy in certain instances. It might just be that the most unifying element on the right stems from attacks from Obama or negative media coverage.

The original Priorities USA ad, for instance, has done almost as much to unite appalled conservatives as anything else the former Massachusetts governor's campaign has done.

Look no further for evidence than this morning's Republican National Committee conference call in which Romney's primary campaign nemesis, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, declined to relitigate his primary campaign criticism of Romney as the worst possible candidate to take on Obama on the issue of health care.

"You talk about contempt? That was a contemptible ad. The facts clearly do not support what that ad was all about," Santorum said.

"All I can say is Gov. Romney is going to be a far superior candidate on the issue of health care than Barack Obama," Santorum added. "The differences between Gov. Romney and me in the primary really fall to the wayside when it comes to differences between the Republican nominee, Gov. Romney, and Barack Obama."

WATERFORD, Mich. -- Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty laughed off "lame" questions Thursday about whether he'd be interested in a cabinet position in a Mitt Romney administration if he isn't selected as the GOP's vice presidential candidate.

"It would be presumptuous and premature for people to be talking about positions down the road," he told reporters at a cabinetry store outside of Detroit, poking at the press for the pun on "cabinets."

"And for me I'm just happy to help [Gov. Romney] as a volunteer. I'm happy to be working in the private sector and on other projects, so beyond that I don't have any plans," he added.

Pawlenty, who is widely discussed as being a possible partner for Romney on the GOP ticket, appeared in eastern Michigan as part of a fundraising tour on the GOP nominee's behalf. As a former governor who no longer serves in elected office or has a professional post other than his membership on a bevy of business boards, he would be a prime candidate for a job in Romney's administration should he be passed over for the No. 2 slot.

In addition to a peppering of questions from reporters eager to match his schedule with a possible secret veep rollout, he fielded inquiries about the Romney campaign's new television advertisements.

Asked about a new ad that links President Obama's contraception coverage policy with a "war on religion," Pawlenty pointed to Romney's past comment that available contraceptives are "working just fine."

"I think Gov. Romney said it best in one of the televised debates when he said contraceptives are working fine and we should leave them alone," he said, referencing  January debate in New Hampshire. "And to his point on religious liberties he was referring to the fact that the Obama administration has imposed new limitations on the exercise of religion and has offended the many leaders of the Catholic church and other faith leaders in that regard."

Touring the cabinetry facility with owners Rik and Mike Kowall, the former Minnesota governor munched on donuts and chatted about the impact of economic uncertainty on small businesses.

"Who decides what music you play?" he joked with one employee as Dire Straits' hit "Money for Nothing" blared in the workroom.

Pawlenty is expected to travel to New Hampshire for a busy slate of public events on Saturday.

From left, Sen. Rob Portman, Rep. Paul Ryan & Former Minn. Gov. Tim Pawlenty

Romney’s three VP finalists: Pawlenty (the loyal outsider), Portman (the insider), and Ryan (the crusader)… GOPers are currently split over whether Romney should pick Ryan… New Q-polls: Romney leads in CO -- where Obama stumps today -- but trails in VA and WI… The Romney camp’s danger in elevating Bill Clinton: You turn him into a fair observer just before his primetime convention speech… New Romney and Priorities USA TV ads play loose with the facts… Romney Hood vs. Obamaloney… McCaskill gets her man… And conservatives in MO and KS wage (and win) the “Border War.”

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to workers during a campaign event at Acme Industries on August 7, 2012 in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

*** The final three: We can say with a high degree of confidence that Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential pick has largely come down to three men: former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. And it’s more than possible that Romney has already made up his mind. All three VP finalists bring something different to the table. Pawlenty is the loyal outsider, who would enable a Romney-Pawlenty ticket to run as former governors vowing to take on Washington; Pawlenty also potentially would add some blue-collar appeal to the ticket. Portman would be the insider, someone who knows the ways of Washington and who could help govern starting on Day 1. And Ryan would be the crusader, who wants to substantially transform America’s entitlement programs and who would excite a good portion of the GOP’s conservative base. Indeed, Ryan has emerged a VERY REAL possibility, but he also brings the most risk. If Romney selects him, it’s more than conceivable that the dominant campaign discussion in the fall won’t be the economy -- but rather the deficit and Medicare. Of course, there was already a good chance the Ryan plan will get plenty attention regardless of Romney’s VP pick.

*** Bold vs. cautious GOPers divided on Ryan: Politico writes that Republican observers are split on Ryan. “Ryan advocates, including some of his colleagues and high-profile conservative elites, believe Romney will lose if he doesn’t make a more assertive case for his candidacy and that selecting the 42-year-old wonky golden boy would sound a clarion call to the electorate about the sort of reforms the presumptive GOP nominee wants to bring to Washington. Call them the ‘go bold’ crowd.” On the other hand: “Their opposites, pragmatic-minded Republican strategists and elected officials, believe that to select Ryan is to hand President Barack Obama’s campaign a twin-edged blade, letting the incumbent slash Romney on the Wisconsin congressman’s Medicare proposal and carve in the challenger a scarlet ‘C’ for the unpopular Congress. This is the cautious corner.”

*** Polling the over-50 crowd: Just how important could the debate over the Ryan budget, especially if he’s Romney’s VP pick? Just consider this AARP poll of voters over 50, in which Obama and Romney are tied 45-45% with the group (and with Obama’s approval at just 42%). Per this poll, 91% believe “Social Security is critical to the economic security of seniors” and “the next president and Congress need to strengthen Social Security so that it is able to provide retirement security for future generations.” (That includes about three-quarters of Romney voters.) And on Medicare: 95% say “Medicare is critical to maintaining the health of seniors” and 88% say the next president and Congress “need to strengthen Medicare so that it is able to provide health coverage in retirement for future generations.” The poll was conducted by Hart Research and GS Strategy Group. (Disclosure: Hart Research is the Democratic half of the NBC-WSJ poll.)

*** Romney leads in CO, but Obama’s ahead in VA and WI: Last week, President Obama campaigned in Florida and Ohio -- just as new Quinnipiac/New York Times/CBS polls showed him leading (and above 50%) in those two states. But today, as he begins a two-day swing through Colorado, the same polling outfit shows him trailing Romney among likely by five points in the state, 50%-45%. That said, new Quinnipiac/New York Times/CBS surveys also show Obama leading in Virginia (49%-45%) and Wisconsin (51%-45%). So out of the six battleground states that Quinnipiac has polled in the past two weeks -- Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin -- Obama leads in five of them. And speaking of polls, a new national Washington Post/ABC survey finds that Romney’s fav/unfav is still underwater at 40%-49% versus Obama’s 53%-43%. In fact, ABC adds that Romney “is laboring under the lowest personal popularity ratings for a presumptive presidential nominee in midsummer election-year polls back to 1984.”

*** The GOP’s danger in elevating Bill Clinton: Over the past few months, the Romney campaign has elevated Bill Clinton (and even Hillary) in an attempt to divide Democrats and to appeal to downscale white voters. And now comes the Romney camp’s latest TV ad. “In 1996, President Clinton and a bipartisan Congress helped end welfare as we know it by requiring work for welfare,” the narrator says in it. “But on July 12th, President Obama quietly announced a plan to gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements.” As Greg Sargent writes, this effort is to portray Clinton as the “good” kind of Democrat and Obama as the “bad” kind. But there is a real danger here for the Romney campaign and Republicans: Clinton is supporting Obama, and he can swing back like he did last night when he released a statement calling the ad “not true.” More Clinton: The recently announced waiver policy was originally requested by the Republican governors of Utah and Nevada to achieve more flexibility in designing programs more likely to work in this challenging environment. The administration has taken important steps to ensure that the work requirement is retained and that waivers will be granted only if a state can demonstrate that more people will be moved into work under its new approach.”

*** You turn him into a fair observer, just when he has a primetime speaking slot: What’s more, Clinton will be delivering a big primetime speech at the Democratic convention. So when the Romney campaign airs this kind of TV ad -- elevating Clinton as a fair observer in this presidential contest -- persuadable voters might be paying attention to what Clinton has to say at the Dem convention. And what happens if Bubba unloads on Romney? Just something to consider…

*** Playing loose with the facts: Speaking of that new Romney TV ad on welfare, First Read has already pointed out that it’s a dubious assertion to claim that Obama is trying to “gut welfare reform.” Why? Because the HHS memo in question clearly states that it “will only consider approving waivers relating to the work participation requirements that make changes intended to lead to more effective means of meeting the work goals of TANF." In other words, the work requirement is still there. So when Romney told FOX last night that Obama believes that “they shouldn’t have to have the work requirement” isn’t a correct statement. But there is a clear reason why the Romney camp wants to continue airing this TV ad: Obama continues to overperform with downscale whites, especially in places like Ohio. But this Romney advertisement isn’t the only new TV ad out there that’s playing loose with the facts. The pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA Action has a spot with a man claiming that he lost his family’s health insurance after Bain Capital helped close a Kansas City steel plant in 2001 -- and that his wife died shortly after. But as Politico notes, the man’s wife died in 2006, years after the steel plant closed down.

*** “Romney Hood” vs. “Obamaloney”: But not only are the TV ads playing loose with the facts, the rhetoric on the campaign trail also has devolved to name calling. So on Monday night, there was Obama talking about “Romney Hood,” seizing on that recent non-partisan Tax Policy Center report. "[Romney would] ask the middle class to pay more taxes so that he could give another $250,000 tax cut to people making more than $3 million a year. It's like Robin Hood in Reverse. It's Romney Hood!" And here’s how Romney countered to FOX: “We’ve been watching the president say a lot of things about me and about my policies. And they’re just not right. And if I were to coin a term, it would be ‘Obamaloney.’” Have we really gotten to the name calling stage of the campaign in August?  Ugly. Are the candidates proud of the tone of the campaign?  

*** On the trail: Obama stumps in Colorado, hitting Denver at 3:20 pm ET and Grand Junction at 7:25 pm ET… Romney campaigns in Des Moines, IA at 9:25 am ET… Meanwhile, Romney’s surrogates and VP possibilities are out in full force -- Portman attends campaign office openings in Colorado; Pawlenty visits Michigan; and Chris Christie raises money for Romney in California.

*** McCaskill gets her man: Endangered Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) caught a real break last night when the one challenger she was HOPING to run against -- Rep. Todd Akin (R) -- surprisingly won his competitive three-way GOP Senate primary in Missouri last night. As National Journal writes, “Polls have showed McCaskill trailing Akin though she polls closer to him than she did against businessman John Brunner and former Treasurer Sarah Steelman, who Akin edged Tuesday.” This Missouri Senate contest is a real race now. McCaskill still may lose, but it’s going to be close. Meanwhile, while Democrats were bracing that Jay Inslee (D) would come in second to Rob McKenna (R) in Washington state’s blanket gubernatorial primary, it turns out that Inslee got 47% to McKenna’s 43%, per the Seattle Times. Now, as Democrats had been telling First Read, the blanket primary isn’t the best way to judge what will happen in November, because the electorates are different. But still, Democrats have to feel good about last night’s result in Washington.

*** Conservatives wage and win ‘Border War’: The Kansas-Missouri rivalry -- in sports as well as what happened in the 1800s -- is known as the “Border War” and last night conservatives won their own version in both states with Akin’s win in Missouri and the conservative state Senate takeover in Kansas. In Missouri, after his victory last night, Akin declared: “This campaign is about reclaiming our Godly values, rebuilding the American Dream, restoring the America that we love.” Across the border, in Kansas, nine incumbent, moderate-leaning GOP state senators, including the Senate president, were ousted -- and it was fueled by outside money, including from the Koch Brothers. Their sin: Working with Democrats “to block some of the most aggressive parts of [Gov. Sam] Brownback’s agenda.” NPR: “The Kansas GOP’s not getting over this any time soon. Normally, after a primary, the party throws a unity breakfast. Not this morning.”

Countdown to GOP convention: 19 days
Countdown to Dem convention: 26 days
Countdown to 1^st presidential debate: 56 days
Countdown to VP debate: 64 days
Countdown to 2^nd presidential debate: 69 days
Countdown to 3^rd presidential debate: 75 days
Countdown to Election Day: 90 days

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RYAN: Robert Costa: “These days, you hear it everywhere — from Republican donors and veteran operatives, and at Capitol Hill watering holes. A few weeks ago, it was a wishful rumor floating in the Beltway ether. Now, sources close to the Romney campaign say it’s for real, that the taciturn former Massachusetts governor is quietly warming to the idea. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the budget king of the GOP, may be Mitt Romney’s veep.”

OAK CREEK, WI — As speculation over whom Mitt Romney might choose as a running mate reaches a fever pitch, one of the Republicans rumored to be on the short list — Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan — is going on vacation.

Ryan told reporters here that he is taking his family to Colorado, beginning Saturday, for a weeklong trip during the summer congressional recess. 

"I'm just doing my August schedule as I planned my August," Ryan said, adding that he will first spend the next two days campaigning in Northwest Wisconsin for local candidates.

Friday, Ryan said he will spend the day in his native Janesville preparing for his trip by getting his tent and backpack ready.

Meanwhile, speculation has grown surrounding just when Romney will name his No. 2 has grown; some believe it could come as early as this week. That, presumably, would take Ryan out of the equation if he maintains his current schedule and heads to Colorado.

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who are seen as the other top VP contenders, are campaigning for Romney this week. Portman has five events Wednesday in Colorado while Pawlenty has scheduled events in Michigan and New Hampshire through the end of the week. Romney kicks off a four day, four state bus tour on Saturday.

While Ryan's name has been mentioned more and more in the past few days, the congressman brushed that off.

"I think that's just because of the convention. Its volume," he said while greeting folks at Oak Creek's National Night Out event.

Ryan commonly refuses to discuss his VP chances — as he did tonight when a constituent asked him about it — but said Tuesday night he will definitely attend the GOP convention in Tampa.

"Scott [Walker], our governor, we're doing a beer and brats thing," the congressman said, adding that he wasn't sure whether he would have a speaking position at the convention.

"My staff has talked to Reince [Priebus]. I haven't talked to Reince," Ryan said of the Republican National Committee chairman and fellow Wisconsinite."I haven't talked to Reince in awhile."

Ryan was scheduled to speak at a vigil later Tuesday night to honor the victims of the shooting at the Sikh Temple Sunday in his district.

ONTARIO, OH -- Ohio Sen. Rob Portman on Tuesday called recent attacks against him by President Obama's campaign "desperate" and further proof they do not have a record to run on.

Speaking to reporters after touring a farm in Shelby, OH, Portman responded to emails from the Obama camp slamming him and other potential Republican vice presidential picks. 

"Rob Portman has been our senator for two years now, but the most damning pieces of his record involve choices he made as a senior member of the Bush-Cheney administration and conservative congressman, the consequences of which still reverberate on a national scale," said an email sent to Ohioans from the Obama For America state director. "As one of the architects of the top-down Bush budget, Portman practically invented the policies that punished middle-class families while exploding the deficit, and crashing our economy."

"I think the Democrats are getting kind of desperate," Portman said in response. "They don't want to talk about their record, and gosh, you can't blame them."

His connection to the George W. Bush administration has been one of the most talked about drawbacks of adding Portman to a national ticket. The former Office of Management and Budget chief is quick to defend his record, today saying "I'm proud of my service in the Bush administration." 

The junior senator from Ohio has kept a busy schedule since Congress began its August recess.  He's done a a mix of events in his home state -- both in his capacity as a senator and as a Romney surrogate.  But regardless of whether he's out on his own behalf or that of the presumptive nominee, nearly all his appearances these days feature Portman going on the offensive against the current administration and defending Romney.

And as speculation has grown about his chances of being named VP nominee, Portman has found himself spending more and more time defending his own record.  He points to his work for a balanced budget and deficit only a fraction what it is today as his ready answer to questions about his connection to Bush.

After touring the farm, Portman headed over to Ontario, OH to help open a Romney Victory Office there.  Though he said he plans to attend the Republican Convention in Tampa later this month, he said he has not had any communication about a speaking slot.

He did say, however, he is looking forward to some social events thrown by another member of the Ohio delegation, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).

"The Boehner parties are always the best parties," said Portman. "I mean, come on, let's face it."

Watch Wikipedia for clues? Political Wire citing Tech President: "Sarah Palin's Wikipedia page was updated at least 68 times the day before John McCain announced her selection, with another 54 changes made in the five previous days previous. Tim Pawlenty, another leading contender for McCain's favor, had 54 edits on August 28th, with just 12 in the five previous days. By contrast, the other likely picks -- Romney, Kay Bailey Hutchison -- saw far fewer changes. The same burst of last-minute editing appeared on Joe Biden's Wikipedia page, Terry Gudaitis of Cyveillance."

Going a little too far? “Even Mitt Romney's shopping cart becomes a clue when trying to solve the political world's biggest mystery,” the AP writes. “The Republican presidential candidate stopped by a supermarket near his New Hampshire vacation home to buy cases of water, Wild Cherry Pepsi and Greek yogurt. ‘I got some folks coming over today,’ Romney told reporters Monday as he loaded groceries into a black Suburban SUV. Would those guests include potential running mates? Romney's only response was laughter. He has repeatedly shrugged off questions about his vice presidential selection. But as the clock winds down before this month's Republican National Convention, political observers are grasping at the slightest hint. Once his shopping list became public, people instantly began speculating on Twitter -- half-jokingly -- about the yogurt and soda preferences of those on the vice presidential short list. Some reporters scrambled to study the travel schedules of potential contenders while others checked on how much longer Romney's wife, Ann, would spend with the family horse at the London Olympics. Romney isn't likely to make his decision public without her at his side.”