Ryan Pick More Popular Than Biden's Selection

by Mike Flynn 

Democrats, the media and "anonymous" GOP sources have been scrambling to tell the public that Romney's selection of Paul Ryan was a disastrous move by the presidential candidate. I always find it precious when the media gets concerned about possible negative consequences for a Republican. While Ryan has only been the vice-presidential candidate for a few days, with a lot of campaigning to go, initial polling looks good for Romney's pick. 

Rasmussen today released a poll showing that 43% of likely voters think Romney made the right pick for his running mate. Better, the poll found that Ryan's favorability has shot up to 50% since he was tapped by Romney. In the critical state of Ohio his favorability is even better, at 51%. As it stands now, Ryan has higher favorability than anyone else on either presidential ticket.
Obviously, the media and Democrats are in full attack mode, which may lower these numbers over time. Still, considering that about the sum total that's been reported on Ryan is that he has a "radical" plan to slash government and "end Medicare as we know it," these are pretty decent numbers. Maybe the public already understands that, as IowaHawk quipped, "the only thing that will end Medicare as we know it, is Medicare as we know it."
It is also worth noting that voters approve of Ryan's selection by a larger margin than approved of Obama's picking Joe Biden to be his running-mate in 2008. Only 39% of likely voters approved of Biden's selection at the time and 25% disapprove. Voters were evenly divided on whether the pick made them more or less likely to vote for Obama. Remember that, at the time, Biden was much better known than Ryan is and had a devoted press corps to fawn over him.