Well, this election is effectively over, barring any major external event. Mitt Romney has chosen Paul Ryan, which doesn't bring him one vote in a general election.
So why did Romney choose Ryan?
To sure up conservative support.
Just think about what that means. The perspective nominee of the Republican Party has to reaffirm his conservative credentials on the eve of his convention. In other words this convention isn't about a general election audience.
It boggles the mind. The Republicans have had four years to find a platform and select a candidate, yet they are now going into their convention without a clue of what they'll say.
So by default Paul Ryan becomes the intellectual leader of the party. Not because he has a monopoly on good ideas, but rather he's the only guy with any ideas at all. Even their nominee is nothing more than vacant shell spouting tired cliches and platitudes.
Paul Ryan's ideas aren't representative of independents or left of center politics. I don't feel the need to vilify the guy, because there is no terrible crime of being outside the mainstream. There is no need to tear him down, as his policy positions will do all that for him.
Paul Ryan is nothing more than far right idealism. His free market utopia is entirely alien to any observed history of any society. For thinking adults it carries as much weight as a far left anarchist manifesto. I have yet to see a fairy tale which doesn't sound superior to reality, but everyone still knows it is a fairy tale.
Joe Biden is Vice President, because he extends the reach of the Democratic Party in the electorate. Obama didn't need to win the left in 2008. He needed the center. Romney is admitting he doesn't have the right or center, so he might at least get the right locked up.
There is no GOP in America. There is certainly Democratic opposition, but when the nominee has to waste his VP pick trying to unite that opposition, it really isn't a coherent political party anymore.