Ryan pick puts country's issues front and center

March 31, 2012: Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, shakes hands with U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Chairman of the House Budget Committee, right, before speaking with supporters of Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker at a phone bank during a campaign stop in Fitchburg, Wis. (AP)

Mitt Romney, right, and vice presidential candidate Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan are joined by Ryan's daughter Liza in Norfolk, Va.

Editor's note: The following commentary is a transcription of an interview by anchor Bret Baier with Fox News contributor and Democratic strategist Joe Trippi on Fox News Channel on Saturday, August 11.

I think Paul Ryan is a great pick. It's the pick I would have urged Mitt Romney to make. I am not talking as a partisan -- the Democrats wanted Ryan. I really think it is a chance to have a real debate, the country needs to have, regardless of who wins it.

Ryan helps put the issues front and center.

It will make the fight -- on both sides -- on taxes, cuts and entitlements and the things we need to have.

That's why I really do commend Romney on the pick. It was a bold choice. It will energize both sides though. There will be a lot of rank and file Democrats that will be pretty excited to start the fight today as well.