Paul Krugman: A (Not So) Serious, (Not So) Honest Running Mate

Paul Ryan for vice president, or as Mitt Romney said at the press conference introducing Mr. Ryan as his running mate, "the next president of the United States."

There is lots of horse-race speculation: It's a disaster! No, it changes the conversation away from Bain and those missing tax returns! I have no idea who's right.

What I do know is that anyone who believes in Mr. Ryan's carefully cultivated image as a brave, honest policy wonk has been snookered. Mr. Ryan is, in fact, a big fraud who doesn't care at all about fiscal responsibility, and whose policy proposals are sloppy as well as dishonest. Of course, this means that he'll fit into the Romney campaign just fine.