Election 2012: Odd timing for Romney VP announcement

Advisers in the Mitt Romney camp called Saturday's announcement of Paul Ryan as the vice presidential selection for the ticket a "game-changer."

One problem: the timing.

Aboard the USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, Va., Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney introduced Paul Ryan as his running mate at 9 a.m. Saturday.

After weeks of buildup and speculation, the big reveal came at a time where younger voters were probably sleeping off hangovers and soccer moms cheering on their kids.

Yes, I'm 23, so you may think I come with a younger person's "time" bias. While I'm not up at 5 a.m. every morning making lunches or waking kids up for school, I do wake up for work at 3 a.m.

For a weekday, when folks are settling into their desk chairs, 9 a.m. is not at all early. On a Saturday when people are catching up on sleep after a long week, going grocery shopping or getting some fresh air, it is.

No doubt the vice presidential announcement is big news. It would be whenever it is made. But for a campaign that admits it wants this to change the scope of the election, a Saturday morning reveal doesn't make sense.

When news came out late Friday night that the official unveiling would come Saturday, so did the leaks. News organizations called up their sources and thus the initial reports of Paul Ryan as VP broke after midnight Saturday.

That's not quite the time where there is a captive audience.

Saturday is also a day where newsrooms are not as highly staffed. On a local level, there simply aren't as many newscasts. Whereas most local stations have a full morning block, noon, and three evening newscasts during the week, they typically have them just at 6 p.m., 11 p.m., and some an hour or two in the morning on Saturdays.

Cable networks don't have their big players on the air on the weekends. There is no Piers Morgan, Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow to break down the news on the evening gabfests. There's no Shepard Smith or Anderson Cooper digesting the news. While the VP choice will get plenty of chatter on the Sunday political shows, it won't be as fresh or breaking anymore.

While the cable nets could bring in the big names or have special reports for the VP news, you have to wonder if the audience will be as large to watch them. Saturday is a night on which broadcast networks have virtually stopped competing. Folks go to the movies, theater, baseball game, or out to dinner. If you have tickets for an event you bought months ago, you're not staying home to learn more about Paul Ryan. But if you watch Hannity or Anderson five nights a week after work as routine, you sure would have.

Breaking news can't be avoided on Saturday when it's a death or disaster. It can when it's an announcement that has been in the works for months.

The Romney campaign went through a meticulous process of vetting candidates yet did not vet when it could reach the largest audience.

News websites peak at the noon hour on a weekday, when people are surfing the web at their lunch breaks. Saturday is a down day, where traffic is at its lowest points.

If the Romney campaign wanted to generate the greatest amount of buzz, an announcement on Monday or Tuesday at 10 or 11 a.m., following the Olympics, would have done a better job.

London Olympics: Gold elusive for Olympic gymnasts

The fall from grace in gymnastics is quick and caustic. It's a sport where fortunes change quickly and rare is it that perfection is long-lasting. 

No female gymnast was immune to the pitfalls of imperfection at these London games. The transition from tears to triumph was often as simple as a change of leotard and new night. 

It's a sport hinged on a grainy layer of subjectivity and mistakes minute to viewers' eyes but enough to crush dreams. 

Just look at Jordyn Wieber. The American was the reigning all-around world champion. Yet, a balance check on the beam and small step out of bounds on the floor cost her a spot in London's all-around final, the result of an ill-conceived rule that only allows two gymnasts from each country to advance. American teammates Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas were second and third in qualifications. Wieber was fourth. 

Raisman and Douglas fell victim to the sport's cruelness too though.

Raisman was flawless in her team and all-around qualifications performances. But the normally unflappable Raisman faltered in the all-around, straddling the beam for dear life at one point. She tied for bronze in that competition. The tiebreaker gave Russian Aliya Mustafina the medal. She earned redemption Tuesday with a bronze on the beam and gold on the floor. 

Golden girl in the all-around Douglas struggled in both of her individual finals. She finished last among a strong group in the uneven bars and fell off the beam ending up in 7th. Douglas went from on top of the podium Thursday to fallen on the mat Tuesday. It's a quick reversal. 

It wasn't just the Americans suffering an emotional upheaval either. Team Russia seemed to be on a spiraling stream of emotions with gymnasts Aliya Mustafina and Viktoria Komova jumping from proud to sad to angry in a few blinks. Finding consistency was no easy task at these games. 

Sustaining brilliance in gymnastics is near impossible. Very few of the world's best fly high at multiple Olympics. 

Both the gold and silver medalists in the all-around at Beijing failed to make it back to London. Shawn Johnson was forced to retire before the U.S. Trials due to a knee injury. Nastia Liukin got the to the trials but ended up face down on the mat, falling to grasp back onto the bar after a release. It's a jarring moment to watch when you remember Liukin in China, a pink princess gallivanting to gold. 

It is all too familiar though. Glory comes and goes quickly. The golden girl's face is on a cereal box then just one in the crowd in a matter of only four years. 

A new superstar emerges and four years ago becomes a distant memory. It has been more than four decades since a woman repeated as all-around champion at the Olympics, the sport's gold standard. 

For now, the memories of American triumph are resonant - McKayla Maroney's jaw-dropping vault in the team final, Gabby Douglas' historic all-around gold, and Aly Raisman capping it with an infectious floor routine for individual gold. 

Four years of training all put to the test in a two-week period. It's special. It changes lives. But fame is fleeting for these girls and women. As Frost writes, "nothing gold can stay."