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'Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it," wrote Saul Alinksy in his "Rules for Radicals." The White House would appear to have a copy.

His agenda stymied and his approval numbers sinking, President Obama has realized this year's midterm election is shaping up as a referendum on failed Democratic governance. The new White House plan? Change the
discussion, talk about Republicans, and frighten the nation about GOP
ideas.

This is the way to read Mr. Obama's sudden re-embrace of his opposition—his unexpected appearance at the House Republican retreat, and his more recent invitation to Republicans to a "bipartisan"
health-care summit. And it's the way to understand the recent
Democratic targeting, freezing, personalizing and polarizing of Rep.
Paul Ryan.

The idea-driven Wisconsin Republican first released his "Roadmap for America's Future" in 2008. The nation can argue about its particulars, but what is inarguable is that Mr. Ryan's plan is a real attempt to
solve America's biggest problems, with bold tax, health and entitlement
reforms to put the country back on the path to solvency.

At the time, Democrats could barely muster a yawn. So imagine the surprise when, after Mr. Ryan re-released his plan in late January, it became a sudden sensation. Two days later
Mr. Obama used his visit to the Republican retreat to thrust it into
the national spotlight. The cameras rolling, the president praised Mr.
Ryan for putting forward a "serious proposal." He in fact singled out
the congressman at least three times. Having done his spotlight bit,
Mr. Obama then left it to the rest of the Democratic Party to
systematically distort and trash the road map.

Within two days of the retreat, Obama budget director Peter Orszag had begun deflecting questions about the White House's ugly budget by hammering on Mr. Ryan's plan, claiming it
"shifted costs" to families. Congressional Democrats held a conference
call with reporters devoted to road map trashing, howling that it
showed that Republicans would privatize Social Security, voucherize
Medicare, and give tax breaks to the wealthy. Speaker Nancy Pelosi
lambasted the Ryan plan in a speech to the Democratic National
Committee.

Democrats used it to turn the health discussion, claiming it was hypocritical of Republicans to hit Democrats for slashing Medicare when Mr. Ryan's plan would also cut the program. They used it to stoke
populist fears. California's Loretta Sanchez claimed the road map would
both "privatize" Social Security and leave it to the "whims of Wall
Street."

Connecticut's John Larson (a member of the Democratic leadership) introduced a resolution to force Republicans to oppose Social Security "privatization" in a high-profile vote. The Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee has already announced ads targeting 12 House
Republicans, "calling on them to come clean with seniors" whether they
support "House Republicans' extreme budget plan that privatizes Social
Security and Medicare." As hoped, the assault re-energized liberal
bloggers and the base.

Better yet for Democrats, some Republicans are falling into the trap. As with its campaign last year to smear Republican Whip Eric Cantor, the White House's attack on Mr. Ryan is designed to isolate and
discredit one of the GOP's brightest thinkers. So it only aids the
White House when "anonymous" Republican members—annoyed that they must
have this debate—gripe to the press that Mr. Ryan doesn't "speak" for
them.

Mr. Ryan, by contrast, isn't apologizing for offering ideas to the very president who keeps claiming Republicans are the party of "no" and who claims to want entitlement
reform. A handful of House reformers are calling the Democrats'
ruse—reminding voters that what makes this surreal is that the only
choice right now is between bad Democratic ideas and worse ones.

These are the smart GOP members willing to do the hard work of explaining the difference between, say, Democratic legislation that would strip money from today's Medicare
beneficiaries and funnel it to a new, unsustainable, middle-class
entitlement, and Mr. Ryan's plan, which would preserve today's program
for older Americans while plowing money from reform back into long-term
solvency. As cheap as the attack on Mr. Ryan is, they understand that
this debate was always coming, and that what they say now matters to
the GOP's future ability to govern.

Should Republicans take back the House this year, or the White House in 2012, they will own giant deficits and runaway entitlements. Reality will force choices. They will either have
to embrace politically tough ideas like those included in Mr. Ryan's
plan, or flail through, doing nothing or succumbing to bigger
government.

The longer the GOP hides or runs from those reforms, the harder it will be to embrace them later. Instead of spending so much time telling the press that Mr. Ryan's road map is not the "official" GOP plan, the
party would be better off asking themselves why it isn't. If Mr. Obama
is so eager for a debate about who is more serious about the country's
future, they should give it to him.