1. Paul Ryan makes Mitt look weaker.

Mitt only picked Ryan out of weakness. He knew he was losing and he knew he needed to get attention off his business career and tax avoidance. Because of this obvious flailing, he was bullied by the far right into picking a running mate he knew would hurt him. Mitt may have finally wrapped up the GOP nomination in August but he did it by admitting he’d lost control of his campaign. Since Mitt picked Ryan he’s already had to distance himself from the Ryan Plan and then backtrack from distancing himself. The qualities that were sinking Mitt are being emphasized with a Paul Ryan-sized highlighter.

2. Paul Ryan voted for all the worst of the Bush Administration—including the Iraq War and the tax breaks for the rich that blew the surplus.

Mitt has mostly avoided the stink of Bush’s failures. Now he’s lousy with them.

3. The Ryan Plan, which even without Ryan on the ticket was dragging Mitt down. It starves the government to pay for massive tax breaks the rich do not need.

It’s not a budget as much as it is a cookbook for the middle class.

4. Ryan reminds voters that Mitt is for turning Medicare into a voucher system. This not only costs seniors more but also explodes the cost of health care in general.

Medicare costs are far more manageable than private insurance, but Ryan and Romney want to blow up our single-payer system that works so Wall Street can profit off seniors.

5. Ryan maybe improves Mitt’s chances in Wisconsin but hurts them in Florida, which Mitt needs to win.

6. Ryan has no business experience.

Romney made the case that there should be a constitutional amendment requiring a president to have run a business as an attack on the President. Now he’s picked Paul Ryan whose only significant private sector experience is kissing private sector heiny for donations.

7. Paul Ryan’s anti-abortion rights record is as bad as a conservative can get in opposing a woman’s right to make her own health care choices.

Ryan supported a personhood amendment that would ban some birth control and is against abortions even in the cases of rape and incest. He’s the confirmation any woman needs that Mitt’s attempt to seem sane on choice in Massachusetts was a total ruse.

8. Ryan doesn’t care about deficits.

He cares about starving the government and transferring trillions in wealth from the middle class to the rich.

9. Ryan and Romney’s collective foreign policy experience is in trying to make America resemble Somalia.

This is the first GOP ticket in generations without a veteran and with virtually no experience of foreign policy. Talk about surrendering your strength.

10. Democrats picked Paul Ryan for Mitt.

At least McCain pulled his game changer from a hat. For the last two years, Democrats have been focusing on Ryan as the worst embodiment of the heartless, plutocratic instincts of the GOP. The GOP took the bait and forced Ryan on Mitt. Some say this is risky. If Mitt wins now, he’s obligated to implement the worst of Ryan’s ideas. But Romney was already in that position. If a President Mitt doesn’t give the far right everything they want, he’ll have a primary challenger by February 2013. At least Romney’s been called out and has to win on Ryan’s incredibly destructive policies.

Call it Game Change II: Romney Shrugs because even if Mitt Romney wins, he’s already lost his campaign.

[CC image by Tobyotter]