NORFOLK, Va. -– Mitt Romney will announce Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as his running mate on Saturday, according to two sources with knowledge of the decision. 
 
 In a press release issued Saturday morning, the Romney campaign confirmed the decision, calling the duo "America's Comeback Team." 
 
 Ryan is a bold pick who will energize the Republican Party, but putting him on the ticket is fraught with risk and instantly puts Ryan's budget plan front and center in the 2012 campaign. 
 
 Romney will announce his choice in Norfolk on Saturday morning at the beginning of a four-day bus tour through key battleground states, the campaign said Friday night. The Weekly Standard reported earlier Friday that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has been asked to be ready to make the case for Ryan beginning Saturday. 
 
 Romney's alliance with the 42-year old Ryan has become the most dramatic development of the 2012 presidential campaign. Romney had been presumed for much of the last few months to be set on a safe pick, such as Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), or former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. 
 
 But now, Romney, who is 23 years older than Ryan, will signal that he is willing to roll the dice. President Barack Obama's reelection campaign and Democratic political groups have been eager for Romney to pick Ryan, the architect of plans to slash government spending and overhaul entitlement programs that Democrats believe are political losers. 
 
 Both liberals and conservatives will be thrilled with Romney's choice. 
 
 Conservatives believe Ryan is one of the brightest, best young faces and minds who can cheerfully articulate a case for limited government while simultaneously arguing that a less expansive bureaucracy and a revamped entitlement system is the best way to preserve government aid and benefits for the poor, indigent and elderly. 
 
 Ryan's budget and his proposed changes to programs like Medicare will now be central issues that drive the presidential campaign for the remaining three months. It is one way for Romney to turn a campaign that has turned ugly and personal, often to his detriment, into a heated debate over policy. 
 
 The battle to define Ryan and his reform plan will set off a messaging war between Democrats and Republicans, the likes of which has rarely been seen. 
 
 If Romney were to win with Ryan on the ticket, he would have a mandate to make sweeping changes not only to the size of government, but to programs like Medicare and Medicaid that are products of former President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program. 
 
 For conservatives, putting Ryan front and center will satisfy their desire to have a full-throated debate about the entire spectrum of issues that they feel are most pressing: the size of the federal government, the government's role in people's lives, the impact of the national debt on the middle class, and how to maintain a social safety net without creating a "culture of dependency" in which too many citizens receive government benefits. 
 
 For liberals, Ryan represents a chance to not just defeat Romney, but an opportunity to discredit, on the biggest stage in politics, the most wide-ranging expression of conservatives' governing principles put forward in recent political memory. Liberals will say that Romney and Ryan want to cut government spending in a way that will hurt the economic recovery and cut assistance to those who need it. Obama himself has already attacked Romney for wanting to "turn Medicare into a voucher program," a reference to Ryan's original proposal for Medicare. ||||| Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan wants to talk policy. Mitt Romney's team wants his No. 2 to focus more on his immigrant family and small-town values. 
 
 Republican vice presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan, center, R-Wis., works on the speech he will deliver at the Republican National Convention, with senior adviser Dan Senor, left, and senior aid... (Associated Press) 
 
 Romney is certain to win out as the Wisconsin congressman _ who made a name for himself with an austere vision of government spending on social programs for the elderly and poor _ accepts the vice presidential nomination of his party Wednesday night. 
 
 Ryan will deliver a speech to thousands of delegates at the Republican convention and millions of viewers watching from home that is likely to be heavy on personality and lighter on policy. 
 
 Romney's choice of Ryan suggested he had accepted the arguments of powerful conservative forces who felt he could not capture the White House in the November election by portraying himself as a successful businessman with sweeping but vague outlines for economic recovery. But mindful of just how controversial Ryan's views are among centrists, Romney has tried to keep his distance from his agenda. 
 
 Ryan's willingness to focus on his personal story and play down policy is the latest example that of him deferring to Romney's preferences. As Ryan puts it, Romney is "the boss." 
 
 Ryan and his team, a mix of longtime aides and new advisers, have spent a chunk of the past few weeks writing _ and re-writing _ the speech. 
 
 "Words matter a lot and I'm putting a lot of effort into them," said Ryan, a former speechwriter to 1996 vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp and former Education Secretary William Bennett. 
 
 Early versions were scrapped and adjusted to include bits of Ryan's natural, easygoing speaking style. In between campaign events and daily workouts, Ryan has been working to put his own voice into the drafts. 
 
 At campaign events, Ryan has tended to favor policy over his personal story. From Ohio to Virginia to Florida, he talks more often about the U.S. debt and deficit than his own life as a congressional aide who became a congressman at age 28. The 42-year-old is more comfortable citing Congressional Budget Office statistics than real people. 
 
 Romney's aides want that to change. Advisers are pushing Ryan toward more personal territory. 
 
 The hope among Romney's team is that Americans get to know Ryan's story, one they say working-class voters could relate to. Left unsaid is the fact that Ryan's policy positions, specifically his controversial budget proposals, have caused headaches for Romney and dominated the storyline of the campaign since he was named the running mate. 
 
 A message of small-town values and self-reliance is set to play a prominent role in his speech. 
 
 Ryan offered a preview of that message Monday at the Wisconsin high school where he cheered for classmates two decades ago. He spoke of his ancestors' journey in the 1850s from Ireland to Wisconsin. Reflecting on more recent history, Ryan spoke of his time in the town when he said neighbors took care of each other. 
 
 He will likely speak about the economic troubles that have hit Janesville, a city that has become synonymous with Ryan's Midwestern appeal. On Monday, he said the city's response to the rough economy is what the United States should do on a grand scale. 
 
 Aides are seeking to lower expectations, saying not to expect a blockbuster speech like the one 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin delivered. Instead, Ryan is likely to paint a picture of himself as a reasonable governing partner for Romney.
– Assuming Paul Ryan doesn't flop over the next three months, then, win or lose, "he could well become the face of Republicanism for a generation," declares a happy Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post. Ryan is the natural leader of a "new constitutional conservatism" in America, just as Reagan was in his time. And, oddly, the credit for shaping this "conservative future" goes to none other than Mitt Romney. As for 2012, the success of Romney-Ryan will hinge on which party controls the message on "Mediscare," writes Krauthammer, who wants the GOP to push the theme that Ryan's plan will save it while ObamaCare will gut it. Another prominent voice on the right, Peggy Noonan, suggests a campaign ad showing a "Clark Kent" character—that would be Ryan—saving Granny from going off a cliff. She also thinks that Ryan and Romney should campaign together all the time, against tradition, and that Ryan should do long, substantive interviews frequently. "Romney just threw a long ball," she writes in the Wall Street Journal. "Fine. The GOP will have to play an audacious, longball game." Read Noonan's full column here, Krauthammer's here.