Karen Heller: Ayn Rand again? Let's get to the real issues

Does this mean we have to try reading Ayn Rand, again? In a presidential campaign that already seems years old, haven't we been punished enough?

Paul Ryan, the Republican choice for vice president, is yet another ardent fan of the libertarian author, having once given copies of Atlas Shrugged (a thousand pages and change) to his congressional staff for Christmas. After all, nothing quite says the holidays like a massive dystopic screed against big government.

Ryan has since distanced himself from Rand's atheist tendencies, because, in 2012, we're fairly tolerant of various religions, except the freedom to not have one.

Now that the Olympics are over, with all of us having become experts on diving with the nifty splash-o-meter or noting the decided lack of Chinese athletes (wait, that was simply NBC's coverage), we return to the other endurance contest: the presidential campaign. Currently, we're experiencing a brief, passionate period of veepophilia.

Picking a running mate is a love story, that Jerry Maguire moment of finding the right running mate whose choice says, "You complete me." Biden completes Obama by bringing warmth and the common-man touch, balancing the president's "otherness." Ryan completes Romney by being younger, less rich (but, then, who isn't), Midwestern and Catholic, balancing the former governor's "otherness."

Ryan's a Washington insider who consistently believes in something - "If you're going to criticize, then you should propose," he said recently - as opposed to being an idea-shifting emoticon.

The vice-presidential choice's commitment to policy over politics doesn't just complete Romney but threatens to overshadow the top of the ticket. All Ryan's admirable attributes point to how lacking they are in the man who chose him. The seven-term congressman is also a more adept and experienced politician than Romney.

Even if voters disagree with Ryan on basically everything, they generally know where he stands. He's a bedrock conservative. By trying to be so many things to so many Americans, Romney hasn't stood for much of anything except not being Obama. Challenging him is like battling a cloud.

With Ryan, Republicans and Democrats feel once again engaged in the campaign. Maybe the candidates will actually start discussing ideas! Possibly the campaign will feature debates about the role of the federal government, military funding in a vastly changed international landscape, the states' responsibilities, taxes (and how to pay for campaign-proposed cuts), education, and, oh, my, jobs creation.

Anyway, everyone is very excited about Ryan! At age 42, he's the first Gen X candidate on a presidential ticket. He's potentially politics' most meme-inspiring candidate, motivating such Tumblr posts as "Hey Girl, math doesn't emote . . . but that doesn't mean I don't." We've learned that Ryan loves Rage Against the Machine while not exactly sharing the band's socialist tendencies.

Ryan carries a powerful narrative - at 16, he found his father dead of a heart attack - that the congressman says launched his drive and purpose. In a recent New Yorker profile, Bruce Springsteen observed that "rock and roll is all about 'Daaaaddy!' "

But the same could be said of politics. It's all about the father, loss or the need to impress or best, plus having a mother who believes in her son's infinite abilities. Ryan's story of pain and redemption - Clinton mastered the form - has become requisite for most national candidates. Know who doesn't have one? Mitt Romney.

But this period is just the introduction, the getting-to-know-you phase, before we launch into the meat of the matter. Perhaps, finally, this election will actually be about specifics. I'd much rather hear details about how the candidates plan to spend our money or care for our citizens than dwell on faux pas and hollow rhetoric absent specifics.

That, plus I will do almost anything not to read Ayn Rand.