If you think this election will be about substance now, you're kidding yourself

The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib believes that the Ryan pick “best guarantees the country will get the kind of philosophical debate worthy of a presidential campaign.”

Maybe. A likelier result is a turn further downward. Everyone up for a “zombie-eyed granny-starver from Wisconsin”?…

[A] fevered presidential race in its final 88 days is hardly the ideal environment for a careful explication of entitlement reform. John Boehner knew this, and avoided embracing the Ryan plan until his Republican majority in the House had been safely elected two years ago. It’s possible that seniors, and others, are ready for a thorough, elevating conversation about Medicare reform. But it would seem instructive to recall the special congressional election in New York last year, when Democrat Kathy Hochul won a “safe” Republican seat with the help of campaign ads showing a Paul Ryan lookalike pushing a wheelchair-bound granny off a cliff.