Romney-Ryan: food for thought

Trousers, Mitt's Romney's selection of Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate gives us a lot to think about.

All observers agree Paul Ryan knows exactly where he stands. And all observers agree that Mitt Romney doesn't know exactly where he stands. This includes observers from the committed right, including The Wall Street Journal editorial board and The Weekly Standard, who during the week urged Romney to select Ryan, because the right knows exactly where Ryan stands.

The effect, to use the mortgage-bubble term, is to put the Romney-Ryan ticket under water. Ryan, the VP candidate, has greater value to the conservative universe than does Romney, the assumed presidential nominee.

Thus, if Ryan, hypothetically, were the G.O.P. assumed presidential nominee, and looking for a running mate to give the ticket its best chance to defeat Obama, would he select Mitt Romney as his running mate?

People in the creative world, meanwhile, as ever, are poking this new cloud with a stick.

Sooner or later, I will wager, someone in the Obama organization, or a centrist or left-leaning pundit in the mainstream media, will hit on the "under-water ticket" that we have already begun to think about, and that back-and-forth, as it plays out, will be fun to watch.

I didn't see the moment of Romney's announcement on TV this morning, but I did listen to about 90 seconds of Ryan's speech and was underwhelmed by his energy. "Wonk and Wonk Jr.," I said to myself, deciding I should go Google "Tweedledum and Tweedledee," "Mutt and Jeff," and other classic pairings up there in the cloud.