The New York Times profiles Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) noting he has become “perhaps the most influential policy maker in the Republican Party, its de facto head of economic policy, intent on a fundamental transformation of the federal government.”

“His prescriptions in the Republican budget plan he devised have become his party’s marching orders: cut income tax rates and simplify the code, privatize Medicare, shrink the food-stamp and Medicaid programs and turn almost all control over to the states, and reduce domestic federal spending to its smallest share of the economy since World War II.”

Jonathan Chait: “And so here we find a political dilemma for the Democrats. They have decided to make Ryan’s agenda the central issue of the election. There are strong reasons for doing so, namely that most of the policies Ryan champions are disliked by a majority of Americans. But elevating Ryan to right-wing bogeyman — a remake of nineties-era Speaker Gingrich, the man who might personify Republican overreach — has proved difficult.”

First Read: “Don’t overlook the fact that the White House used the opportunity of the White House Correspondents Dinner — when they knew they’d get lighter coverage for what they did – put a story that they’ve struggled to put into the mainstream, quietly trying to do for months, the Seamus story. It was frankly a way to get Seamus out there. Yes, Obama made fun of himself and eating dog, but they’ll take that to get the Seamus story mainlined; They’ve been trying for months.”

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is quickly taking the lead on leading the foreign policy attack against President Obama, First Read reports.

“McCain, now a Romney surrogate, said Obama’s ‘diminishing the memory of September 11th,’ and accused him of ‘doing a shameless end-zone dance.’ It’s a fine line. McCain clearly doesn’t mind playing this role. He says things Romney couldn’t get away with and it’s something that’s quite beneficial to Romney. If Romney said what McCain did, Romney might get ridiculed. It’s an interesting role that McCain is willing to play. It could be a preview of the role McCain might play going forward in the campaign — traditional role of VP, but on foreign policy. McCain doesn’t mind going personal with Obama, as he’s demonstrated since 2008. You can try to explain away McCain’s motives all you want, but it could be oddly effective for Romney.”

Jon Meacham: “Since at least 1968, Democrats have traditionally been more circumspect than their Republican foes in presidential politics. The lesson of the Clinton years and of Obama’s win both of the nomination and the general election in 2008 is that Democrats need to be as tough as JFK was (‘tough’ was a favorite Kennedy term). Is the bin Laden ad fair to Romney? No, not really. But politics is not for the faint of heart…The way to put oneself in a position to take the harder, more honorable political path is to argue for one’s virtues in a vigorous way. That’s what Obama has done, and is doing. There’ll be more punches coming.”

The New York Times reports that Rep. Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have all quit the GOP presidential race but have “resisted the urgings of their peers to get on board the Mitt Romney Express. Their hesitance is raising concerns among the power brokers in Washington, who wonder what game they are playing. And the pressure is increasing.”

“The American people do not want to vote for a loser.”

— House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), in a CNN interview, suggesting that Mitt Romney’s success in business makes him an attractive candidate.

Chris Cillizza: “A detailed analysis of Romney’s various paths to the 270 electoral votes he would need to claim the presidency suggests he has a ceiling of somewhere right around 290 electoral votes. While Romney’s team would absolutely take a 290-electoral-vote victory, that means he has only 20 electoral votes to play with — a paper-thin margin for error.”

“Under the 2012 map, Romney would win 292 electoral votes if he replicated the Bush 2004 victory. But New Mexico seems like a very tough place to win — not to mention the fact that he would again need to carry Ohio, Florida, Colorado and Nevada as well as North Carolina and Virginia.”

Last week, the Obama re-election campaign trumpeted the fact that Osama bin Laden is dead. This week, they release a new video pointing out that “General Motors is alive.”

[Read more…]

President Obama’s re-election campaign “has put Bill Clinton on notice that he will be used as a top surrogate, further evidence of how far the two camps have come since the bitter days of the 2008 Democratic primary between Obama and Hillary Clinton, now his secretary of state, the AP reports.

Tonight, the current and former president “planned to make the first of three joint appearances at fundraisers for Obama’s campaign.”