Well now that the ‘Sunday gasbags’ (Calvin Trillin’s wonderful phrase about the Sunday morning TV political ‘know-it-alls’) have had their say — as well as lots of others on cable, on radio and in national and local newspapers on why Ryan is a good or bad choice and what that choice means — here are about a dozen articles that will help inform you about Cong. Ryan. These were written over the last few years, by reporters who have had time to look into Ryan and who he is).

1. Paul Ryan Reading Guide: The Best Reporting on the VP Candidate, ProPublica,* Aug. 11, 2012.

In one place, these are the best I’ve found, ranging from the one I (belated) cited by The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza (a good place to start), The New York Magazine, The American Conservative, Weekly Standard The Atlas Society, The NY Times, Foreign Policy, etc.

(*If you don’t know of ProPublica, it’s worth putting it on your radar. It calls itself “an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.”

Disclosure: My wife Ellen is on their Journalism Advisory Board along with Jill Abramson, executive editor of the NY Times, Robert Caro, David Gergen and others.)

2. Nine Reasons Romney’s Choice of Paul Ryan for Veep Is Smarter Than You Think, by Don Hazen, Alternet, Aug. 13.

Executive Editor of the very liberal Alternet, Hazen disagrees with his colleague and others who were gleeful that Romney “played right into the Obama message on how the Romney agenda harms the middle class.”