By selecting Paul Ryan (R-WI) as his running mate Gov. Romney has dramatically shifted gears and changed lanes in his bid for the White House.

Gov. Romney has made a bold, some say risky, decision, making this election now about diametrically opposed policy choices rather than a referendum on President Barack Obama’s presidency and who is best equipped to lead the nation. 

Which nominee wins depends on how the majority of Americans see themselves. Are we still a nation of risk takers, entrepreneurs, and people in control of our own destinies, or have we ceded all that to dependence on government?

Up until Saturday, when Gov. Romney announced his selection of Rep. Ryan, the Romney campaign has focused its message on Gov. Romney’s private sector business experience and President Obama’s incompetence as the choice in this economic-issues driven election.

The Obama campaign strategy has been to attack Gov. Romney personally, defining him as an unacceptable choice. They say he was a greedy vulture capitalist when he ran Bain Capital. They label him as anti-women, wanting to take away their contraception. Recently, they even tried to make him responsible for the cancer death of a former Bain Capital company employee’s wife.

Depending on which polls you believe, the Obama campaign’s negative strategy appears to be working. Recent polls in key battleground states of registered voters show President Obama with a widening lead, especially among independents and women. Other national level polls of likely voters show Gov. Romney with a lead, but it’s within the margin of error.

Because of this and a desire for true reform in Washington, D.C., conservatives and Tea Party Republicans have been critical of the Romney campaign. They argued that making the election a referendum on President Obama wasn’t enough; and they urged Gov. Romney to put forth a concrete reform agenda to counter the Obama negative attacks. With the selection of Paul Ryan they appear to have gotten what they wanted.

Whether it has been Gov. Romney’s strategy all along or only recently adopted, placing Paul Ryan on the ticket signals that Romney and Ryan are prepared to take on debt and deficits, entitlement and tax reform with specific proposals. They will focus more on the road ahead than what is in the rearview mirror.

Democrats, who aren’t shifting gears and changing lanes, welcome the selection of Paul Ryan as Gov. Romney’s VP choice. They believe that negative attacks on Ryan and the Republican budget plan he authored in the House of Representatives and more negative attacks on Gov. Romney will only make the Romney-Ryan ticket more unacceptable to the majority of American voters.

The Obama campaign is gambling that a majority of voters, especially in battleground states such as Florida, Virginia, and Ohio are comfortable with big government, expanding entitlements, and a tax system that extracts revenues from wealthier Americans while expanding the number of people who pay no federal income tax at all.

President Obama and his surrogates will avoid talking about Obama's record and out-of-control deficits. They will posit that electing Romney and Ryan will threaten the expanded safety net Americans have come to depend on, and that only President Obama and Democrats can protect America from vulture Republicans.

Democrats have always been good at fear-mongering and personal attacks. No one should under estimate the effectiveness of this strategy. Republicans use negative attacks as well; but if negative politics were an Olympic event, Democrats would win a gold medal. Republicans would be lucky to win a bronze.

The Romney campaign is gambling that despite America’s economic difficulties and the changing moral, social, and political attitudes of American voters, the majority still believe in American Exceptionalism, the American Dream and equality of opportunity, not the equality of outcomes.

Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan will argue that Democrats and Republicans have placed the ship of state on a collision course with an iceberg. What President Obama has done is increase the speed at which the ship will strike it. Only a positive reform agenda will avoid the iceberg and put the country on a course for smoother sailing and prosperity.