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That Rep. Paul Ryan was Mitt Romney's choice for a running mate wasn't a complete surprise. Still, it was a closely guarded secret and it took quite a bit of planning to keep it under wraps until the name was unveiled yesterday.

Last night, NPR's Ari Shapiro and other reporters received a briefing from team Romney detailing the lengths they went through to keep their vetting — and Romney's ultimate choice — secret.

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We're keeping our ear on the Sunday talk shows this morning. Obviously the topic of the day is Rep. Paul Ryan, whom the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has chosen as his running mate.

Both parties have already traded hard shots, but it appears there is agreement that the addition of Ryan, who has led the GOP on matters of budget, focuses this presidential election. It is now focused on a broader narrative about the size and role of government.

We'll update this post with the highlights as the morning progresses:

For a couple of days last month, I ate the same foods as some of the fastest people on the planet — the Kenyans.

I stayed at the same hotel and ate in the same dining room as the Kenya Olympic Marathon team while working on a radio story about how this impoverished nation produces some of the best endurance runners in the world.

At the end of August, the eyes of the political world turn to Tampa, Fla., for the Republican National Convention. It promises to dominate the national and local news in Tampa Bay that week and suck all the political air out of the room.

So if you're the Obama campaign, what do you do? How do you counterprogram Romney-palooza?

Apparently, by buying lots of TV airtime on The Bachelor, Dr. Oz and Rachael Ray.

One thing Republican Mitt Romney's choice of Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate will certainly do is elevate issues like Medicare and Medicaid to the top of the election agenda.

As the nation gets closer to Election Day, Ryan's addition to the GOP ticket will present the public with a dramatic choice about the role the government should play in health care.

One thing the Wisconsin congressman never does is apologize for thinking big.

Ten years ago, Andres Cortez, a chauffeur in Los Angeles, might have been part of the hordes of people dabbling in day trading or haunting the online stock forums. He might have been bragging to his friends about the money he made in tech stocks, or learning how to margin trade at a night school.

Instead, he keeps his distance from stocks.

As he stands by his car and waits for a passenger downtown, Cortez says he has a little money he's put aside and is keeping it in a savings account, where it earns virtually nothing.