In a sense, Ms. Palin and Mr. Ryan represent opposite sides of the Republican conundrum at the moment. Ms. Palin is an outsider with a serious following in the party’s grass roots, but she has not shown that she has a plan to actually govern. Mr. Ryan is a powerful Washington figure with an office full of detailed flip charts, but he has little, if any, following out among the faithful…

A Palinesque opposition would probably seize on proposed tax increases or benefit cuts in the plans, accuse Mr. Obama of creating the commission as a gimmick and dismiss the whole exercise as just another waste of the citizens’ money. A more intellectual approach would be to embrace the most conservative option offered by the panel and take it up for debate, in hopes of pressuring the White House into some meaningful compromise.