The Hill's Meghashyam Mali reports on the inevitable link:
Speaking on "CBS This Morning," Axelrod said the reaction he was seeing among Republican supporters for Ryan was the “same kind of excitement” he saw four years ago. “When John McCain appointed Sarah Palin, as well, there were huge crowds, much of the same kind reaction and I don’t think it worked out very well,” he said.
It's true that both Palin and Ryan energized the base far more than the guys at the top of the ticket, but beyond charisma and youth, the comparisons between Palin and Ryan break down. Ryan is a wonk. Palin was a not-wonk. A Dodge Durango and Fiat share similarities, but only to a point.
(Speaking, though, of youth, Smart Politics has a study out today noting that the age disparity between Romney and Ryan (23 years) is tied for the seventh largest in history. As big as their gap might be, though, Palin and McCain had an ever bigger age gap (28 years).
