Nate Silver: Can see rationale for Ryan pick, but risk weighted to downsides.

[Fawke Em]

Politics 101 suggests that you play toward the center of the electorate. Although this rule has more frequently been violated when it comes to vice presidential picks, there is evidence that presidential candidates who have more “extreme” ideologies (closer to the left wing or the right wing than the electoral center) under-perform relative to the economic fundamentals.

Various statistical measures of Mr. Ryan peg him as being quite conservative. Based on his Congressional voting record, for instance, the statistical system DW-Nominate evaluates him as being roughly as conservative as Representative Michele Bachmann, the controversial congresswoman of Minnesota.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/11/a-risky-rationale-behind-romneys-choice-of-ryan/

Whoop... there it is.

[corkhead]

1. The republicon PTB still needs the teabaggers to do their bidding down ticket

I think it is more about that at this point than them trying to revive Rmoney's campaign

[dsc]

2. actually there is an amazing chart in his post

I hope it came through with this link. If not it shows the relative liberalism or conservatism of each presidential and vice presidential pick, Ryan is more conservative than either Cheney or Quayle.