Question of the week: “Did Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate make the GOP ticket more attractive?”

• David Cohen: To the Republican base, yes. To independents and Democrats, no.
• Karen Anderson: No. Paul Ryan IS his budget, denounced by well over half of Americans, partly because of Medicare concerns. As VP to a senior citizen president, he really could be a heartbeat from the presidency.
• Jeff Nunes: It should make the GOP ticket more attractive no matter what your persuasion because finally there is a serious candidate in this race willing to talk about our financial problems in this country who is articulate enough to explain them and understand them, and who has had the guts to propose a solution. And even if you don’t like his solution, at least his candidacy opens the discussion like never before.
• Julian Mancias: No. It really didn’t change things much since Paul Ryan’s economic plan, as it relates to taxes, is very much like Mitt Romney’s.
• Jeff Smith: Absolutely. I think Paul Ryan is one of the sharpest minds and most decent individuals in Washington. He is young, articulate, smart. He’s the head of the Congressional budget committee, he’s been in Washington for 14 years, he’s experienced, he knows what he’s doing. He’s one of the few if any that have made any substantive proposals as to how to get us out of our fiscal mess. I think Mitt made a great choice in Paul Ryan.
• Lisa Pampuch: No. Paul Ryan is a divisive VP nominee who will only help Mitt Romney with the fringe far-right wing of the GOP that would never vote for President Obama anyway. As moderate Republicans and independents get to know Romney’s extreme budget proposals and radical views on reproductive rights, including contraception, they’ll be even less inclined to support the ticket.
• Dave Appling: Not on November 6. The slate is more attractive to the Tea Party, Wall Street, the religious right, and devotees of Ayn Rand. But Romney has just kissed off moderates of both parties, independents, believers in responsible compromise, and seekers for real-world solutions. And now he’s stuck with Ryan’s rigid economic ideology.
• Kathy Sullivan: No, but it helps solidify the direction the GOP is heading towards – a very sharp right turn.
• Dennis Kennedy: No! Not to the general public. It will make it attractive to only a small, core group of          ultra-conservatives.
• Henry Miller: Probably from the party’s perspective as it will bring the tea-partiers into the mainstream. Will it be enough to win? I doubt it. The south and west are ignored with this choice.
• Chris Bryant: No, I don’t think anyone could make up for Romney’s apparent lack of ability to empathize with anyone but himself.
• Bert Berson: No. Only to the people who would have voted for Romney anyway. I believe that it was a political blunder on many levels.