Liberals who are "giddy" at the prospects of Mitt Romney's selection of Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan are in for a rude and sober awakening when they realize the strategic genius behind the decision.

Team Romney's strategy?  Lure the Obama campaign into attacking Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" deficit reduction plan as a means to frame the 2012 election as a battle over the economic consequences of debt and deficits.  If Obama strategists David Axelrod and David Plouffe take the bait, Mitt Romney will win.

When the Obama campaign and its surrogates run retreads of the infamous "throw grandma off the cliff" Medi-scare ads against the Ryan plan, Team Romney will run the identical ad and say "Obama's reckless spending and deficit spending have already driven America's economic future over the cliff."  

When the Obama campaign claims that the Ryan plan paves a "path to prosperity" for the big insurance companies, the Romney campaign will counter that Obamacare has already paved a trillion dollar "path to prosperity" for Obama's big insurance company cronies.

When the Obama campaign alleges that the Ryan plan will "end Medicare as we know it," the Romney campaign will fire back that Obama's addition of $5,027,761,476,484.56 to the national debt has already ended Medicare as we know it.

Punch after punch, jab after jab, every Obama attack on the Ryan approach to reducing debt will allow the Romney camp to frame and cement Obama's ruinous spending explosion--as well as its disastrous effects on the economic wasteland America has become under Obama's leadership.

To see how devastating such policy pivots will be, just take a look at page five of Ryan's Path to Prosperity plan. There, Ryan contrasts Obama's debt exploding vision for America with his vision for fiscal responsibility. It's persuasion on steroids.

Will Obama be foolish enough to attack Romney and Ryan on an issue that puts debts and deficits front and center?  Republicans could only be so lucky.