by Patrick Appel The Ryan pick will undoubtedly excite strongly conservative Republicans, but they don’t need much exciting:
Conservative Republicans are more enthusiastic, not less enthusiastic, than other Republicans. If Romney wants to engage in base mobilization, he should be focusing on the 27% of Republicans who self-identify as moderate or liberal.
Romney isn’t the first GOP candidate to pick a veep intended to fire-up the very conservative. Millman reviews recent history:
[S]ince Reagan, every VP choice by a Republican nominee has been, in some fashion, a base-pleasing move to the right. Bush Sr. picked Dan Quayle to reassure movement conservatives that he would keep faith with the Reagan religion and that they would have a voice in the White House through which to reach him if he didn’t. Dole picked supply-side hero Kemp. Bush Jr. picked Cheney, largely to provide heft and ballast to the ticket, but also because Cheney had a rock-solid conservative record in Congress. And McCain picked Sarah Palin, who, at the time of the pick, was ideologically undefined, but who was expected to excite conservatives because of her background and life story.
The Dish 