Romney's Advisors Knew Ryan Was a Bad Choice

So, the initial reaction to the selection of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI01) as Mitt Romney's running-mate has been kind of curious. Republicans are elated. So are Democrats. Electoral politics is a zero-sum game, so this is weird. Now, to be fair, there's arguably a tactical advantage in appearing publicly to think that things are going great for your side, so maybe this isn't so weird. But the fact remains that at most one side can be right in their elation over the Ryan pick. Which one?

Well, obviously, being a Democrat I tend to think that the Democrats are right, and that Ryan will turn out to have been a giant mistake. But here's a piece of evidence that makes me much more confident in that thought, and much less scared of the idea that there's some secret plan that will make Ryan a genius pick. Specifically, I've seen a few stories recently saying that all of Romney's advisers were dead-set against picking Ryan. The impetus to choose him came entirely from the candidate. The great thing about this is that there's no particular reason to think that Mitt Romney, himself, has a perfect grasp of all the relevant evidence about whether Ryan would be strategically advantageous for the ticket. There is a reason to think his various advisers have such a grasp, however, namely that it's their job. It's not the candidate's job. So the fact that all of the people in the campaign whose job it is to know what decisions will make strategic sense for the campaign didn't want to pick Paul Ryan is tremendous news. It suggests that they agree, in their heart of hearts, with the Democratic reaction to the Ryan pick.

Now, these stories could be wrong. But if they're not, they make me feel a lot better about feeling good about Paul Ryan as the Vice Presidential nominee.