America has spoken, and it apparently does not want any of the presidential candidates the Republican establishment has to offer. It forcefully rejected Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and Lindsey Graham, and it wasn’t too hot on Mitt Romney’s unsubtle attempt to offer himself as a brokered-convention alternative, either. Running out of time to prevent Donald Trump from seizing the G.O.P. nomination, party elites are suddenly remembering that time they browbeat Paul Ryan into becoming Speaker of the House, and thinking to themselves, Maybe we could do this again.

At the moment, according to several recent interviews, the Wisconsin congressman and former vice-presidential nominee is taking a pass. “People say, ‘What about the contested convention?’ I say, well, there are a lot of people running for president,” Ryan said in an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood Tuesday morning, appearing to give the idea some thought. “We’ll see. Who knows?”

Moments later, Ryan backpedaled. “I actually think you should run for president if you’re going to be president, if you want to be president,” he said. In case that wasn’t clear, a spokeswoman later told NBC News that “he will not accept a nomination and believes our nominee should be someone who ran this year.”

Asked again on Wednesday whether there was any scenario in which he could become the nominee, Ryan told The Hill: “No, there isn’t. ‘No’ is the answer. Definitively."

Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time Ryan has vowed not to take on the role of party savior, only to acquiesce later. Last year, he was equally adamant that he [did not want to become Speaker of the House] (http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/10/paul-ryan-family-speaker-demand) when John Boehner resigned the post, eventually caving after Kevin McCarthy mysteriously dropped out of the running to replace Boehner. With a track record of changing his mind under pressure, the party leaders may continue to nudge a reluctant Ryan to keep his options open. “He probably wouldn’t [do it] but everyone thinks he’s Republican Jesus,” one G.O.P. staffer told Politico. (On Wednesday, Boehner kept the Jesus theme going by endorsing Ryan over all the other actual candidates and referring to Cruz as “Lucifer.”)

Whether “Republican Jesus” caves is an entirely different story. Ryan, considered a Tea Party leader in the halcyon days of the 2012 election, now appears the commensurate Washington insider, relative to Trump and Cruz. Ryan made a name for himself as a budget wonk, ran for vice president as Mitt Romney’s running mate, and is now the Republican leader of Congress, an institution loathed by many of Cruz’s and Trump’s supporters. His devotion to small-government principles, embodied by his near-worship of Ayn Rand, seems quaint in an election cycle dominated by populist anger, rather than fiscal conservatism.

Even if he somehow became the nominee and escaped the riots Trump has promised in Cleveland if G.O.P. leaders attempt a convention coup, he would still have to take on Hillary Clinton in the general election; a race that any Republican could very well lose. With all that political turmoil on the horizon, Ryan is likely quite content to continue slashing budgets for social services and flying home to his children once a week.