Seriously, Paul Ryan's no Palin

WITH MEMORIES of Sarah Palin looming over his Tampa podium, Rep. Paul Ryan wants America to know two things.

He's serious.

And his top-of-the-ticket mate, Mitt Romney, is pretty serious, too.

"Before the math and the momentum overwhelm us all, we are going to solve this nation's economic problems," Ryan said Wednesday night in accepting the 2012 Republican nomination for vice president. "And I'm going to level with you: We don't have that much time. But if we are serious, and smart, and we lead, we can do this."

And the Wisconsin Republican and House Budget Committee chairman doubled down on Romney: "His whole life has prepared him for this moment - to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words," he told cheering delegates in bringing the second night of the hurricane-truncated GOP confab to a close.

Ryan may have been serious - but he wasn't specific.

Keeping within the spirit of the Tampa convention as well as the Romney campaign so far, the youthful congressman - who evoked John F. Kennedy, or maybe the Who, in saying that "I accept the calling of my generation" - pledged to restore the economy and solve the national-debt problem. But he offered no details in a speech briefly interrupted by protesters.

Still, the S-word may have been Ryan's hope for differentiating himself from the iconic speech delivered three years and 361 days after the GOP's 2008 vice-presidential pick, Sarah Palin, electrified that year's Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn.

Before that night, vice-presidential acceptance speeches were about as memorable as postage stamps, and less exciting. But Palin's address became the stuff of HBO-movie legend ("Game Change"), peppered pop-culture with catchphrases ("Lipstick!") and more than anything else gave the droopy standard-bearer Sen. John McCain an eight-point bounce.

So, Ryan's challenge Wednesday night was large. He needed to top Palin yet show America that he wasn't really like her. He ! had to s how he was wonkily serious about policy without boring people. And he needed to excite his audience without getting them more excited about him than the notion of a President Romney.

G. Terry Madonna, the Franklin & Marshall political scientist and pollster who's attending the Tampa convention, said that Palin "set a high bar" for future vice-presidential speeches, in terms of impact.

"But Ryan is different because he can stand on his own two feet," Madonna said. "If he engages, it will not be because of his image but because of his ideas."

The majority of his speech, though, seemed a boilerplate recitation of standard Republican accusations that the Obama administration promotes socialism. He said that America is becoming a nation where "everything is free but us."

And the speech came with some of the same misrepresentations that have been rife throughout the Tampa convention. Once again, he implied that Obama had something to do with the closure of a General Motors plant in his hometown of Janesville, Wis. - which actually shut down in the final five weeks of the George W. Bush administration. He also slammed the president for Medicare cuts that Ryan also promoted in his 2010 budget plan.

His best moments were the homespun ones, showing off his telegenic family and speaking repeatedly of his small-town upbringing in Janesville. His mostly earnest remarks were warmly received by delegates, who gave Ryan his biggest ovation when he declared that "my mom was my role model."

Sarah Palin might have appreciated the line, but we won't know right away. Her employer, Fox News, canceled her appearance at the last minute. Perhaps they didn't want to encourage the inevitable comparisons.

If Palin did watch, she heard Ryan's entrance music: "The Boys Are Back in Town."

Contact Will Bunch at bunchw@phillynews.com or 215-854-2957. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Bunch. Read his blog at Attytood.com.