Could Romney take Ryan down with him?

Could Romney take Ryan down with him?

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If Romney were now leading in the polls, the right would be fine with this. But as the reality of his plight –a persistent three- or four-point gap – has sunk in, they’ve reacted with frustration and anger. The calls for Romney to “unleash” Ryan represent one of the forms this panic has taken.

One way to understand this, as Ed Kilgore explained yesterday, is that conservatives genuinely believe that their Obama-era worldview has broad appeal, and that if a telegenic true believer like Ryan were out there preaching it, they’d win in a cakewalk. But there’s also a longer-term play here. By loudly complaining about the neutering of Ryan now, conservatives are positioning themselves to claim vindication if Romney-Ryan ticket goes down to defeat: See, we told you we needed to be more conservative!

In theory, this will position the ambitious Ryan nice to segue from a 2012 loss into a bid for his party’s 2016 nomination. I tried to be a team player, he could tell conservatives, and I was just as frustrated as you – now let’s go out and run our kind of campaign!