Winning by losing

by digby

I guess the beltway CW is that Romney putting Ryan on the ticket spells the end of the right wing jihad because the conservatives will not be able to say that Romney lost because he wasn’t conservative enough. Ding dong the witch is dead. (Again. The last time I heard this much celebrating was when Obama vanquished the Republicans for all time in 2008.) Let’s just say that I think that’s a bit of wishful thinking.

The thing you have to remember is that conservatism can never fail, it can only be failed. And Romney, not Ryan, will bear the brunt of the failure. Indeed, Romney will have failed the faithful Ryan and the faithful Ryan will be granted a chance to “do it right.” (If he then fails, of course, it will be because he turned out to be a closet liberal after all. Conservatism can never fail …)

I think this all comes down to the insistent liberal illusion not only that some day the American people are going to wake up and see that these conservatives are all crazy, but that conservatives are going to wake up and see that they’re all crazy. I see no evidence that it will happen that way. It’s certainly possible that the conservative movement as currently constructed will reform or die out. I know I fervently hope so. But it isn’t going to happen because Paul Ryan was the VP on Romney’s ticket and so conservatism has been discredited. Ryan will survive just fine as wingnuts’ poster boy who was loyal to the party and the top of the ticket. And he’ll be the favorite for 2016 if they lose.

I mean seriously, it was the CW among the conservatives just two years ago that Sarah Palin could beat Obama and if she had been a real politician like Paul Ryan there is no doubt she could have won the nomination. And she was taken very seriously by the beltway too:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ABC News’ Barbara Walters that she is seriously considering a run for the White House and believes she can beat President Obama in 2012.

“I’m looking at the lay of the land now, and … trying to figure that out, if it’s a good thing for the country, for the discourse, for my family, if it’s a good thing,” Palin said in an interview scheduled to air in full Dec. 9 on ABC as part of Walters’ “10 Most Fascinating People” of 2010.

Asked Walters: “If you ran for president, could you beat Barack Obama?”

Replied Palin: “I believe so.”

This is the second time this week that the 2008 vice presidential nominee has shown that she is considering a run for the presidency.

If the rightwing didn’t blame Palin for the McCain failure, despite the fact that it is clear she was instrumental in putting the final nail in his coffin, I can’t imagine what Paul Ryan could do that would make them reject him.

No, he will be the most powerful Republican in the country if Mitt loses, and the next in line for the presidential nomination. Thinking that Republicans will reject him simply because the wishy-washy, robotic, unlikable, Mormon, gaffe prone, ex-Taxachusetts health-care-guru-Governor Mitt Romney failed to be conservative enough is a real stretch.