[Photo: by Jack Gruber / USA Today]

Paul Ryan enters the spotlight as Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick.  Those who don't know Paul Ryan, a 7-term U.S. Representative from Wisconsin, may be surprised to meet the man who stands beside the Mitt.

A MAN OF TRADITION.    True to his conservative roots, the stocks he owns include blue chips Apple, Exxon Mobil, General Electric, I.B.M., Procter & Gamble, Wells Fargo, Google, McDonald's, Nike, and Berkshire Hathaway, according to his latest disclosure filing. Similarly, he counts among his supporters employees of financial heavyweights Wells Fargo, UBS, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America.

WHAT THAT MEANS. 

• For his 2012 Congressional race, he raised about $179,000 from securities professionals - the single largest sector that donated money to his campaign.
• One of the biggest contributors was Elliott Management, Paul Singer's hedge fund. Dan Senor, recently a senior adviser to Elliott Management, was just named Mr. Romney's new foreign policy counsel.
• Mr. Ryan's issue with Dodd-Frank: he dislikes the provision that has the greatest support of the industry: a tool known as resolution authority, which gives the government the authority to dismantle a failing bank without wreaking havoc on the rest of the system.

AN EXCEPTIONAL MAN.    What sets Mr. Ryan apart, however, is his loyalty to Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman, 2 figures long associated with free markets.

WHERE IT MATTERS.    

• His vote in 1998 to repeal parts of the Glass-Steagall Act, allowing commercial and investment banks to merge.
• His 2008 vote in favor of the bank bailout - i.e., TARP or Troubled Asset Relief Program.  Before the vote, he encouraged his colleagues in the House to vote in favor of it to avoid "this Wall Street problem infecting Main Street."
• As a member of the commission, he voted down the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan, arguing that it did not go far enough in overhauling health care entitlements.

WILD CARD?    After voting against Simpson-Bowles, Mr. Ryan later criticized President Obama for not supporting the deficit reduction plan, prompting Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council under President Obama, to say on CNN:

"Paul Ryan, talking about walking away from a balanced plan like Bowles-Simpson is, I don't know, somewhere between laughable and a new definition for chutzpah."

In addition, future voters face Mr. Ryan's approach to the debt ceiling.  Last year, 3 months before the debt ceiling debate reached a peak, Mr. Ryan said that he was prepared to let the government default on its debt for at least several days if it would force Democrats to accept deeper cuts.  He was not received well.

"I hear what G.O.P. support there was for Obama/Bowles/Simpson debt panel plan is collapsing thanks to Ryan Plan." -- James Pethokoukis, a columnist for the American Enterprise Institute, which has traditionally supported Mr. Ryan, sent this Twitter message in April.