gwen: with the republican ticket in place, the 2012 campaign shifts from a referendum to a choice. and hand to hand political combat ensues. tonight on "washington week." the week began with a jolt of energy. >> i am deeply honored and excited to join you as your running mate. [cheers and applause] >> people ask me why i chose paul ryan. the answer is i wanted someone who was a leader. gwen: but the campaign veered quickly into charge and countercharge. some of it rooted in policy. >> you pay into medicaid for years. every paycheck now when you need it, obama has cut $716 million. >> and some of the charges personal.

>> this is what an angry and desperate presidency looks like. president obama knows better. >> unchain wall street. they're going to put y'all back in chains. gwen: the campaigns go toe to toe. covering washington week, jackie calmes of the "new york times," john harris of politico alexis simendinger of real clear politics. >> coming from our nation's capitol this is gwen ifill for "washington week." corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by --

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steamboat company, proud to support "washington week on pbs. additional funding is brought to you by the annenburg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, live from washington moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening, paul ryan's elevation to the national republican ticket represented a shift in strategy as profound as we have seen all election years. there's a referendum that american voters want to give president obama a second term. and there's the choice, who's vision is the most in sync with where americans want to go. this is how president obama described him this week. >> he's a very articulate spokesperson for governor

romney's vision. the problem is it's the wrong vision for america. it's a vision that i fundamentally disagree with. >> and this was paul ryan campaigning today in virginia. >> you get to choose which path you want. do you want the opportunity society with the safety net, the land of the free of upward mobility or do you want more of the same? a debt crisis, a welfare state, a nation in debt, doubt and despair? really clear. gwen: it seems that the distinction is clear. >> the distinction came clear. i was with president obama and one of the things we heard a lot were some of the contrasts, the choices that the president has been talking about a lot, taxes, maybe the auto bailout. but we started to hear about the role of government and the idea of what the romney-ryan

ticket would do. the obama campaign felt that it shifted into their direction and some people thought in the romney-ryan world that it shifted in a direction that romney has enjoyed very much in that it made it a bigger argument about the role of government and that the two of them create addai unanimousic sort of combination that will make their ticket more salable perhaps. gwen: jackie let's talk about paul ryan. there are generalizations of who he is, that he's a tea party conservative. who is he in the context of this campaign? >> in this campaign it's interesting. there's not a lot of space between him and mitt romney when it comes to what they're running on or stand for. but he has made this -- i mean, where as mitt romney has changed positions over time. paul ryan's been very consistent for the most part and he has put details on these

-- on his beliefs that governor romney up until now was sort of avoiding. so it's made this choice really interesting to me that they seem to be running a cautious campaign and they exclusively said i think in an interview with politico that one of the advisors said we don't want to put on a lot of detail. that's not how you win elections and with the choice of paul ryan they have. he's been running on this small government blat form. it's not so much an anti-deficit or balanced budget platform because you see his budget would not have a surplus until the year 2040. it's cutting government to force further cuts in government. so it's really a perhaps the most dramatic figure representative -- most dramatic change in american government in a century. >> it's interesting because paul ryan was embraced by republicans.

you might hear a sigh of relief that mitt romney made a bold choice. was it? >> there's no question that it was bold. i think there's no question that somebody like mitt romney who is a cautious, calculating, careful politician throughout his career made a bold choice. i think it is the best signal yet in their appraisal. this may be a close race. consistently polls show mitt romney behind and they had to make a judgment that they were on a trajectory to lose the race. you do something bold and have the electorate look at the ticket in a whole new way that's what they did. i'm not sure i agree with you that many republicans are out there saying right on. >> some are worried. >> certainly privately the operative class in washington. but the people who work in politics were uniformly ranging from anxious to skeptical into

outright hostile. >> because the democrats were so excited about it. >> this now makes it a clear contrast and these people felt it was better if you could keep the focus on president o bam -- obama. >> they tried to start to come back together to not allow democrats to try to divide them on medicare. they're trying to unite about medicare and go back after the democratic ticket on this question because it will reassure, i think, the base of their party and those who are nervous in some of these house races or senate races in some ways they're going to have a strategy to push back as opposed to being vulnerable to being divided. gwen: you allude to coming back together on medicare. explain what the distinction is because it's easy toe be confused between what the obama administration has said it would take from medicare about $700 billion. and what the paul ryan plan would take from medicare which

is about $700 billion. >> identical. gwen: but what's to be believed because right now they're saying black is white. >> i have to say that i remain flummoxed as to why the romney campaign is using this issue of the cutting $716 billion from medicare to the extent they are. i mean, superficially, sure, i see it. they feel they're under fire about what the republicansill do to medicare. so they're creating doubt among senior who is happen to be a very tough group for the president, his toughest group. not a lot of support there for president obama. so they're solidifying their own base among older voters. but the facts are so clear that the $716 billion in reductions from medicare spending over 10 years which not to confuse people further but they used to hear republicans say $500 billion. the difference is you've moved the 10 year perio

we're in a different 10-year period that's more current. it means more in reductions. the reductions are in insurers and other providers of health care. not a penny is it from beneficiaries and the same amount of reductions were in paul ryan's budget for each of the two years -- gwen: romney says i will have my own plan. the ryan plan is fine. we haven't heard what it is. but he's basically said that is all well and good but i'm not going to embrace -- >> that's the other thing i'm confused about. i can't help but think that he's going to restore those $716 billion in reduction which means that these providers and insurance companies will get higher payments than they otherwise do under obama care. i use that phrase because both the president -- >> the president is now embracing it. >> by doing that you are increasing medicare's cost and

you are taking away -- means that the solvency of the medicare trust fund will -- is shorter. instead of the medicare trustees had said that like it or not, obama care extended the life of medicare to eight years to 2024. this brings it back to about 2016 which would be the last week of a romney administration. gwen: but they don't want to have this fight about this. this is where they lose voters? >> there's no way in the current public opinion climate that mitt romney can win a narrow policy debate about medicare. public opinion is overwhelmingly fixed on this. almost 70% of people in a pew poll said they would oppose medicare cuts even for something they oppose. the debate that mitt romney thinks he can win with this pick is the boldness debate,

the leadership debate. we're willing to think big was a the country's in -- this country is facing big problems. and so that they can create a sort of larger atmospheric realm. we are problem solvers and the president is awol. >> i wonder if the obama campaign isn't thinking to themselves we can kill them on the details. it's not a good thing for this debate. what paul ryan had planned for medicaid which is the federally financed program, that that might be even more drastic than what's happening with medicare. >> one of the things that we will hear is that there are more people who benefit from it. we're talking about elderly people, poor people, young people, children, families. and also the president's health care bill, obama care, was supposed to enlarge medicaid

and give huge inducements to the state to get them to do it to cover more people above the poverty line. so we're going to have as much as the republicans are talking about medicare. they're also talking about repealing health care. there is this opportunity for the obama ticket to come back and talk about what would happen state by state. these very cash-strapped states whether they would want to buy into this idea that romney and ryan apparently endorse of getting rid of all that not through ryan's plan but also the repeal of the affordable care act. i think that -- the leverage in this state is a debate to come. gwen: you wrote about it this week, john, which is the decision that you make for a running make is a decision about how you want to run. do you want to run on the mechanics? you assemble these voters here, this democratic and you get to 270 or do you want to run on something that's far more emotional? >> right. i think mitt romney was running

a very mechanical campaign decided that he needed to alter the chemistry, alter the way that the electorate looked at him. gwen: which was successful in the short-term. >> that's right. and vice presidential picks are usually successful. we don't really know until we see this play out at the conventions and at the first debate. but a mechanical campaign says, hm, he might help us a while. people fundamentally don't know mitt romney and don't have an understanding or trust. in his leadership values an we're going to make a bick -- and we're going to make a big statement with paul ryan. that was very, very risky. people can disdain anonymous sources. the reason they're professionals is they know this stuff. the fact that there is so much

overwhelming feelings about this pick tells you why. gwen: at first we were talking about paul ryan's plan and almost over night the tone went in the toilet if i may just say because each one was accusing the other based on hatred and divisiveness. each accused the other of becoming unhinge. the president took digs at the republican nominee. >> governor romney even explained his energy policy this way. i'm quoting here. "you can't drive a car with a windmill on it." i don't know if he's actually tried that. i know he's had other things on his car. gwen: i was surprised to hear the president talk about the dog on the roof of the car. maybe that was an off-hand comment. >> no. being in iowa gives you a chance to be very close to

president obama when he's campaigning. and in this particular case it was the day of three events and in all three events, he used the fun version of what we just heard. and i happen to be standing next to one of his top advisors waiting to talk to him at the moment when this part of this speech came up. and david plus stopped what he was doing because he knew what he was doing and he gave a look to the president's speech writer and they waited for the line and it went over with an appreciative, supportive audience and a woman burst out, oh, that was a good one. later that evening i was watching the president use a teleprompter and watching him give the speech and he did the same thing again obviously repeating a version of it. it was not specifically in the text that way but he definitely repeated what we had heard

earlier. gwen: it is interesting to see what things are on script. people were yelling to paul ryan no teleprompter. i keep hearing that everywhere they go. they should probably tell them that mitt romney uses the teleprompter. that's besides the point. the other thing that mitt romney was trying to do is take charge of the medicare issue. he set out to answer questions about his medicare plan. but ended up -- this is yesterday, reviving the debate over how much he's paid in income taxes. >> the fascination with taxes i pay compare small-minded compared to the broad issues we have. i never paid less than 13%. i think the most recent year is 13.6% or something like that. i pay taxes every single year. harry reid's charge is totally false. gwen: paul ryan put out his tax

return late tonight and he paid more than mitt romney paid in taxes just for the record makes a lot less money also. but why would he still be responding the republican nominee to what harry reid said about him two weeks ago? >> well, this just shows how dicey this tax issue is for mitt romney that he feels that he has to address it at the same time, the campaign is clearly -- or he has clearly made a decision that there is something in those tax returns so politically embarrassing or dangerous that they don't want to release them. i mean, he -- to bring them up begs the question, you know, it's -- harry reid has been justifyably crit sized -- criticized for what he said. but at the same time, each time mitt romney complains about what harry reid tells him to put up, well, he can put up this tax return.

gwen: i said ryan paid a higher rate. we also heard joe biden come out this week and make that comment that we heard in the open about, you know, putting people in chains which was denounced by republicans as being racial coating. what are all these campaigns trying to do with all this stuff they're hurling at the wall? >> they're wreckening with the reality that there are very few undecideded voters left. that this is about motivating the base on each side. and they're dealing with the reality that except for about a 24 hour period there this is not an i election about joining great issues. it's about disqualifying the other person at the personal level, making the other person an unacceptable alternative because our politic is so polarized and there is oad

dissatisfaction that the way to win an election, i'm not saying i'm that great but that guy's worse. gwen: it seems that partisans are driving the fundamental argument here. >> well, one of the interesting things that students of political science are pointing out is that most voters know how they're going to vote. they could vote today and they would be happy with their vote. the range of voters that are up for grabs in the state that we care about that would make a difference is so shockingly small and the amount of money that both tickets are spending to influence in some way at the end some version of that small group as well as right now as john is describing, this very base oriented election. it's really an interesting dynamic to watch. one of the other things that i mentioned is what have we not been talking about? we haven't been talking about the economy. so when you're asking jackie what is the strategy that

romney and ryan are using if the argument is supposed to be, look how badly president obama has done with the economy. we haven't been talking about that. gwen: isn't that the assumption? that's when we're talking about all this at the convention? >> they're not going to be talking about mitt romney's tax returns. it's interesting the extend when you do have so many people that have made up their minds it's a matter of getting out your base out to vote in november and to the extent you can make people disgusted by the race generally, you'll -- you know, apathy sets in and maybe the other guy won't be able to get his people out. and it's just, you know, what mitt romney has to do is make barack obama less likable because barack obama, you know, like his policies are not and his record are not, he's well liked as a person.

gwen: we're going to see it all the next weeks. we have to leave you just a few minutes early so you can support your local pbs station which in turn supports us. but we'll be back with a full length program. we'll take you on the road with a special "washington week" town hall previewing the republican national convention in tampa before a live audience in st. petersburg. the next week we'll do the same thing for the democratic national convention in charlotte. i'll be online answering your questions next thursday at 2:00 p.m. you can start sending them now to pbs.org/washingtonweek. and we'll see you from florida next week on "washington week." good night.

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