Paul Ryan Week One: A DISASTER (For Obama)

Today is the seventh day that Paul Ryan has been on the GOP ticket as Vice President, and so far the predictions of Ryan hurting the Romney effort have been proven false. As a matter of fact this is also and the end for what can be only seen as a disastrous week for the Obama campaign.

The Ryan addition seems to have added new fire to the GOP effort, the campaign is starting to anticipate the Obama attacks and preempts them before they can stick.

The attention has turned away from Romney's life at Bain capital and turned toward a real issue the economy, entitlements and medicare.

Perhaps the worst part of this week for the committee to reelect the President (CREEP) is that there are flashes of the main stream media being fair (or at least fairer than 2008). For example Wolf Blitzer and Bob Schieffer were each critical of the Obama team for not distancing themselves from the SuperPAC "Romney killed my wife" commercial.

As far as raw numbers the Romney campaign has offered a quantitative look at what Ryan has brought to "the party." Since the announcement in Norfolk, Virginia on Saturday:

• Online Fundraising/Donations: 124,800+, Amount: $10,157,947,Average Donation: $81,       % New Donors: 68%

• Site Traffic:Total: 2,000,000, Desktop: 1,560,000, Mobile: 440,000

• Mitt Romney Social: Facebook: +510,000 -- Now 4,360,000/Twitter: +54,000 -- Now 861,000

• Paul Ryan Social: Facebook: +860,000/Twitter: +118,500       

• Volunteers:45,000+ sign up to volunteer online

There are other numbers that show the positive influence of Paul Ryan on the ticket. For example on Monday CREEP Spokesman Stephanie Cutter: "We Feel Pretty Confident On Our Standing In Wisconsin [Ryan's home state]"

But yesterday both Rasmussen and CNN told Stephanie to worry. CNN's political analysts moved Wisconsin's status from leans Democrat to "toss up." Rasmussen released a new poll which showed Romney slightly ahead of Obama in the Wisconsin.

The Polls showed Romney surges in other key states, the Purple Strategy Poll of swing states showed Romney with slight leads in the must win states of Ohio and Florida.   Rasmussen had Obama slightly ahead in Ohio and Romney slightly ahead in Florida.

More interesting than the overall voting numbers in Florida, is their stance on both sides medicare proposals:

Retirees are a sizable bloc of voters in Florida, and Democrats are already criticizing Ryan’s Medicare reform proposal in an effort to win those voters. But 48% of the state’s voters fear the president’s health care law more than Ryan’s proposal when it comes to the future of Medicare. Just 41% fear Ryan’s proposal more.

Also interesting is that despite the Democrats' best attempts to cast Ryan as a demon to seniors, the Wisconsin congressman is well liked by the 65+ voters in Florida:

Voters 65 and older also view Ryan more favorably than younger voters do. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of these older voters express a favorable opinion of Ryan, including 42% with a Very Favorable view of him. Fifty-four percent (54%) of retirees say Romney made the right choice when he picked Ryan, and 50% say they are more likely to vote for the Republican with Ryan on the ticket. Twenty-nine percent (29%) in this group say they are less likely to vote for Romney because of Ryan. 

There is still plenty of time before the election and the real campaign season doesn't really start till after the conventions. The GOP Convention opens a week from this coming Monday, and the Democrats the week following.  In 2008 John McCain left the convention with a lead which held until the financial crisis hit and he displayed a tepid and confusing response.

The Romney team seems much more primed to fight off the false attacks than McCain, and the addition of Ryan is (so far) playing out as an excellent choice.