In their first campaign address beyond the Norfolk announcement of Paul Ryan as VP candidate, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan delivered a pair of upbeat Reaganesque speeches to a crowd of supporters at Manassas.  Ryan, speaking first, was at his best — confident, comfortable, assertive, with an infectious enthusiasm.  As I watched, I feared Romney couldn’t do as well, but he did.  At last he has five major themes well-honed and well-delivered.  What an improvement over that 59-point document nobody read!

Just as Carter did against Reagan in 1980, Obama and his nasty, negative, class-warfare surrogates are going to have a lot of trouble competing with Romney-Ryan if the latter can keep this up.  Reagan won 44 states in 1980.  Can Romney-Ryan approach that record?