GOP frets over Ryan

>>> welcome back. in today's politico briefing, are republicans secretly fretting over mitt romney 's choice of paul ryan as his running mate? what do republican insiders think about the choice? joining me now, john harris , politico's editor in chief. we hear a lot of praise for this gutsy choice, as they put it, of paul ryan and the fact that he has given energy to the candidate, mitt romney . romney clearly was an improved candidate on the road with ryan this weekend. but what are republicans telling politico behind the scenes ?

>> well, three reporters who you know and i think have sat in this very chair, jonathan martin , alex byrnes and maggie haberman, went out to fill up their notebooks, talking to republican political professionals in washington saying let's cut to the chase , what do you really think about this pick, is it a wise one, what are the risks, and what they found is that when they talked to people on background and let's emphasize they're not willing, most of them, to attach their names to this criticism, but when you talk the people on background, the skepticism, in some cases the fear or panic about this pick is palpable. it's overwhelming.

>> is that because of medicare, is it because of the ryan budget that ryan among the candidates was specific about controversial things?

>> it is largely not exclusively, but largely the medicare issue. what it comes down to is if you look at older voters, in particular older white voters, right now, they overwhelmingly default toward romney as the republican. many of these people are very disappointed with president obama . they are a critical swing bloc in this election. if a ryan pick somehow takes that political asset away from mitt romney or even just neutralizes it, then it really has devastating political consequences.

>> as we have been talking, john harris , we've got tour boats going below so i'm not rocking here with a disco behind me. it is the tour boats on the chicago river . thanks very much.

>> sounds fun.