With Ryan pick, Romney would send a message: This is not a foreign-policy election

So much for Petraeus. Barring a colossal media-wide screw-up — which is not outside the realm of possibility — it appears that Mitt Romney will name Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate Saturday morning from the deck of the USS Wisconsin. It’s a bold choice: Ryan’s hard-line economic views will excite the Republican base but could alienate moderates and swing voters. But whatever impact the pick has on Romney’s campaign, one thing is clear: The GOP ticket is not running on foreign-policy this year. With the exception of a fairly rote 2011 speech at the Alexander Hamilton Society and a budget plan that would gut the government’s diplomacy and development funding, Ryan has little record on foreign- policy issues.

This makes this year’s GOP ticket something fairly unprecedented in modern presidential politics: a pair in which neither the VP nor the presidential nominee has any substantial foreign-policy experience on his résumé.

Romney’s obviously not the first former governor or candidate without significant national security experience to run for president. But generally speaking, his predecessors have picked running mates who compensate for this lack of experience. Freshman Senator Barack Obama chose the veteran Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden. George W. Bush picked Dick Cheney, a former secretary of defense. Bill Clinton’s pick, Al Gore, had sat on the House Intelligence Committee and been active on arms control issues. Mike Dukakis’s running mate, Lloyd Bentsen, had been involved in Latin America policy during the Carter administration. Ronald Reagan chose former ambassador and CIA chief George H.W. Bush. Walter Mondale — Jimmy Carter’s vice president — had been active on Vietnam and intelligence issues in Congress.

New York Governor Thomas Dewey and California Governor — later Supreme Court justice — Earl Warren had little foreign-policy experience to speak of when they ran in 1948, though both had been involved in wartime planning efforts.

With this pick, Romney seems to be wagering that foreign policy will not be a major issue in the campaign. We’ll see if he’s right.