Appearing in Ohio Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) showed no sign of letting up on Medicare:

Ryan is also getting more comfortable batting back efforts form the press to quiz him on the differences between the House budget and the Romney-Ryan Medicare plan. In an interview with local press here’s how he handled it (at the 1:24 mark):

In a press availability in South Carolina Mitt Romney had this to say about his taxes:

“I just have to say, given the challenges that America faces — 23 million people out of work, Iran about to become nuclear, one out of six Americans in poverty — the fascination with taxes I’ve paid I find to be very small-minded compared to the broad issues that we face. But I did go back and look at my taxes and over the past 10 years I never paid less than 13 percent. I think the most recent year is 13.6 or something like that. So I paid taxes every single year. Harry Reid’s charge is totally false. I’m sure waiting for Harry to put up who it was that told him what he says they told him. I don’t believe it for a minute, by the way. But every year I’ve paid at least 13 percent and if you add in addition the amount that goes to charity, why the number gets well above 20 percent.”

I really can’t fathom why he brought this up. The tax return issue had largely been out of the news. The Romney campaign hasn’t responded to my inquiry as to why Romney would reopen the door.

The questions will likely restart once again. And the media — with mock seriousness (after mangling and distorting virtually every aspect of the Bain story) — will wonder why Romney won’t release the complete returns. Moreover, it suggests that the Democratic attack machine has gotten into Romney’s head. (Did he actually spend time doing this?) That’s not how to keep a campaign on offense.

Imagine the roles were reversed. An employee of the Christian conservative Family Research Council goes over to the D.C. Center for the LGBT Community. He shouts, “It’s not you, it’s about the policy!” He shoots a security guard. The FRC leadership expresses remorse, but the media are out for blood. The story is above the fold in the major newspapers. It leads on every network news program. MSNBC runs a banner all day: Christian hate group attempts mayhem against gays. The president goes on camera to deliver remarks on tolerance and goes to the bedside of the wounded LGBT security guard. The hue and cry goes up for FRC to shut its doors. Its “hateful rhetoric” is responsible for the violence, we are told. Sponsors of FRC are targeted for harassment, and groups that donate to FRC are denounced as well. This must end!

It’s entirely believable, because we’ve seen variations on the theme so many times. But of course in reality the FRC security guard was shot, and the incident doesn’t make the front pages of most newspapers. No one would dare hold the LGBT community responsible. And the White House press secretary had a statement from the president, who didn’t publicly speak on the incident itself.

The coverage was bizarre in some instances. Take the local ABC affiliate, which said that some advocacy groups were “casting” it as a hate crime. Umm, didn’t the shooter say it was about FRC’s Christian conservative policies?

Was Mitt Romney slipping before naming Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as his running mate, and is Ryan helping him to rebound?

As I’ve warned multiple times, polling months before an election is a dicey business. And polls that over-sample voters from one or the other party are relatively meaningless. So encouraging battleground state polls that show Romney’s numbers rising shouldn’t freak out the Democrats nor give Republicans all that much comfort. And for those on the right who didn’t buy certain national polls showing President Obama had stretched to a big lead, the latest batch simply suggests the race is where it has been for much of the campaign — that is, within the margin of error.

But there is no mistaking the mood in the Romney camp: It is somewhere between relief and elation that the campaign is back on its feet and once again on offense. Campaign advisors with whom I spoke over the last couple of days resist cockiness, but the sense is that the campaign is doing what it must and putting itself in a good position for the convention and the debates.

Romney advisers think the campaign’s welfare ad is contributing to the uptick and are convinced Obama’s invitation to states to seek waivers of the work requirement is toxic for Obama with working- and middle-class voters in swing states.

Following the very effective buyer’s remorse ad campaign from the Republican Jewish Coalition, Americans for Prosperity is out with its own version of “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”:

Mitt Romney has to win back traditional Republican states that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) lost in 2008 (e.g., Ohio, North Carolina, Florida). So this gentle coaxing of 2008 Obama voters makes sense. It is also the case that in poll after poll, voters who support President Obama are more likely than voters who support Mitt Romney to say they might switch candidates.

The selection of disappointed voters is also interesting — an older voter concerned about his grandkids and two middle-aged women, one Hispanic and one Jewish (note the Star of David). Many Republicans think the groups that these voters represent are the groups that are weakest in their preference for Obama.

Democrats still insist that they have big leads among Hispanic and Jewish voters. They are right. But is the lead as big as it was in 2008, and more important, will voters from these traditional Democratic constituencies vote at all?

Prepare to see many more variations on the buyer’s remorse theme. The Romney team, looking at a “wrong track” number of more than 60 percent for Obama, think it is a winner.