The Atlas Shrugged Ticket: Conservative David Frum Says Paul Ryan, on Balance, is a Minus for Romney’s Campaign

Why does he say that? Because in picking the Ayn Rand enthusiast and millionaire Paul Ryan,

Romney has transformed a campaign about jobs and growth into a campaign about entitlements and Medicare. Romney will now have to spend the next months explaining how and why shrinking Medicare after 2023 will create prosperity in 2013. Economic conditions are so tough—the Obama reelection proposition is so weak—that Romney may win anyway. But wow, the job just got harder.

Frum is referring, of course, to the Ayn Rand inspired Ryan budget plan, which is now the Romney-Ryan budget plan.

My take: in choosing Ryan, the Obama campaign’s narrative is nicely reinforced. The millionaire who picked another millionaire for his running mate really is out to enlist the federal government into the service of a social Darwinian agenda. My bet is that the ultimate result of Romney’s pick is that President Obama’s electoral vote count on election night will exceed 300.

Mitt Romney has grossly miscalculated. By putting a guy on the ticket with him whose favorite novel is about rich people shrugging off all other people and retreating into a hyper-fortified, gated community called “Galt’s Gulch,” he has perhaps revealed more about his vision for America than he knew.