The ideal Romney-Obama argument over Virginia must be rooted in promise, rather than retrospection—that is, Romney must convince Virginians that their economic stability is precarious and that four more years of the Obama administration will bring it to a halt.

Mitt Romney, in being anything but a good candidate, is an example of the American process: that we are not given good candidates—we have to choose them.

Obama should have said something to the effect of “I personally disagree with the filmmaker and his despicable film, but this country will ardently defend his right to produce it”.

The DNC wasn’t about Barack Obama the transformational figure. It was about Barack Obama, the man. While it seems bizarre, I don’t think people knew Barack Obama four years ago. They knew an ideal, not a Democrat.

America has now gotten a good intimate look at both presidential candidates, but the battle for the White House continues.

Romney could coast to a victory by default, the natural result of an election where the Democrats lack either the impetus or the funds to campaign on the scale of their Republican opponents. In a state where SuperPAC money flows like the Mississippi River, this is both a possible outcome and a probable one.

Does $3.83 for a gallon of regular unleaded “threaten the U.S. economy” in the way Katrina or international wars did? Absolutely not. But due to inappropriate blaming or not, does the president know that it threatens his reelection chances? You bet.

If campaigns believed that people didn’t start paying attention until after Labor Day, then why have they spent hundreds of millions of dollars on ads until they can’t buy any more T.V. time? Why do they care so much about campaigning if we allegedly do not.

While the GOP is looking ahead to the future, the priority is still having Romney replace Obama, and so every Convention speech (even Christie’s) will be about Romney, Romney, Romney. The Republican Party will show America its patriotic and conservative spirit – spirit that not even a hurricane can dampen.

While conventional wisdom says that embracing a plan as unpopular as Ryan’s is not smart politics, Romney and Ryan might be banking on the fact that most of the negative attention the plan has received is based on the claim that the plan would hurt seniors by cutting Medicare – a claim that is utterly false.

Voters always knew this election would be about a choice, and the stark contrast between the two tickets provides the electorate with a very meaningful choice to make. Prepare yourself America; this is going to be a fiery election indeed.

It’s clear from the past four years that Obama and the Democrats are either unwilling or unable to do what a majority of Americans elected them into office to do. They’ve betrayed us or they’ve failed us.

As the bishops made clear, the severe Ryan Budget contradicts the most basic premises of Catholic social teaching. The philosophy behind the draconian cuts instead comes directly from Paul Ryan’s high school sweetheart, Ayn Rand, the author of Atlas Shrugged.

This election just got an upgrade. Ryan will force Romney to talk about the budget, and therefore, it will force the president to talk about the budget.

The Romney-Ryan ticket’s biggest challenge to winning Ohio will be convincing its citizens (who are already concerned about economic future) that their plan for reform will be more successful than Obama’s.

But even more importantly, the selection of Ryan sends the message that Romney will push for policies that he believes are best for this country, even if they may be politically unpopular.

Of course President Obama could not have accomplished everything at the beginning of his term, but rolling out these orders and policies just months before the election makes me extremely skeptical of Obama’s intentions.