There's a story circulating on the web (e.g., here) with the title:
How Paul Ryan will help Mitt Romney change the conversation
The idea goes like this:
In selecting Paul Ryan, the intellectual force of the modern conservative and Republican movement, after a very rough summer spent on the receiving end of an Obama campaign onslaught of framing and advertising, Romney is not simply picking a safe choice of a governing partner and a fellow campaigner to help amplify his message. He is, instead, looking to change the conversation.
snip
By putting Ryan and his deficit cutting plans, largely aimed at significantly altering some very popular entitlement programs such as Medicare, front and center, Romney seems to be demanding a new phase of the 2012 debate. It is an effort to turn the page from stories about car elevators, the Cayman Islands, and dancing horses and welcome a sharp ideological contrast with President Obama about America's fiscal future and the governing philosophies behind it.
This is crap. The story remains the same and it's about heartless conservative Republicans vs. compassionate progressive Democrats. Ryan, a worshiper of Ayn Rand, is hardly any different than Romney, an unbridled capitalist whose only concern is making money regardless of the human impact.
Ryan's selection is simply an interruption in the continuing conversation, not a change in topic.