Paul Ryan's Tampa Convention Speech

Columns and reports are still arriving from Google so it remains too early this morning in Europe to yet offer a verdict on Paul Ryan's speech last evening in Florida.

It is possible to read the transcript, here, and I offer some quotes that struck my eye:

On Obama's first term: - "Now all that's left is a presidency adrift, surviving on slogans that already seem tired, grasping at the moment that has already passed, like a ship trying to sail on yesterday's wind."

On Obama and debt: - "In this generation, a defining responsibility of government
is to steer our nation clear of a debt crisis while there is still time. Back in 2008, candidate Obama called a $10 trillion national debt unpatriotic.  Serious talk from what looked like a  serious reformer. By his own decisions, President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him.    And more than all the troubled governments of Europe  combined. One  president, one term, $5 trillion in new debt.    He created a new bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report.  He thanks them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing."

On a programme for a Romney/Ryan Presidential term: -  "In a clean break -- in a clean break from the Obama years, and frankly from the years before this president, we will keep federal spending at 20 percent of GDP, or less.  Because that is enough."

Now in a speech like this that really is a strong pledge, one that confirms my view that victory has already been written off as unlikely and therefore a pledge not to be called upon in Ryan's own mind.

Ryan may be a factor in 2016 but unseating the incumbent with Romney upfront seems an impossibility, but we will see what the candidate himself has to say tonight.