[W]hat the whole Beltway media crowd has done – is to slot Ryan into a role someone is supposed to be playing in their political play, that of the thoughtful, serious conservative wonk. In reality, Ryan is nothing like that; he’s a hard-core conservative, with a voting record as far right as Michelle Bachman’s, who has shown no competence at all on the numbers thing.
What Ryan is good at is exploiting the willful gullibility of the Beltway media, using a soft-focus style to play into their desire to have a conservative wonk they can say nice things about. And apparently the trick still works. -Krugman on Beltway centrism
It works on the media.
Will it work on the American people? I don't think so. At least not enough to overcome the huge hole the Romney campaign is already in. Electoral victory is damn near out of reach for Romney without an apocalyptic shake-up.
Paul Ryan doesn't excite average voters the way he excites the Halperins of the Beltway.