smart post up today about the immediate (and the long-term) future prospects of Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin who came only 4.2 million heartbeats away from being a heartbeat away from the presidency. I was wondering about it during my recent sabbatical. After all, in the aftermath of the whomping they took, both Willard Romney and Ryan have said some magnificently stupid things in public. Neither one of them can seem to shut up about the "moochers" who did them in, but Ryan added the delightfully retrograde racist filigree of complaining about the "urban" vote. (This was a code that everybody cracked at approximately the 43rd minute of the premiere of the first Shaft movie back in 1971.) But, whereas Romney has been belted around by everyone from "Bobby" Jindal to Christ Christie over his comments, Ryan has escaped unscathed. Now, it's possible that this all can be attributed to the fact that nobody outside of his immediate family — and they could be jivin' too — really likes Mitt Romney. I certainly could be convinced that is the case. However, there is something else going on here, too.

Now, ordinarily, the second banana on a campaign so thoroughly inept as the Romney campaign would find himself exiled to the remainder table of history about 11 seconds after the polls closed, especially a second banana like Ryan, who brought nothing to the ticket whatsoever, and could deliver neither his home state nor his hometown. In terms of their relative contributions to the overall effort of their respective campaigns, compared to Paul Ryan, Sarah Palin was Boss Tweed. But, as Kilgore shrewdly points out, Ryan maintains a constituency within the Beltway that seems rather impervious to the demonstrable fact that, as a national politician, Paul Ryan makes a terrific doorstop. Kilgore believes that it is entirely possible that Ryan is still situated to play an important role in the various economic negotiations that will be playing themselves out over the next couple of months. Kilgore also rightly points out that Ryan's wholly unearned reputation as a "numbers guy" and a "budget wonk" may well remain intact among the various politicians and journalistic slugnutties who built that reputation in the first place. It seems to Kilgore that Ryan has options going forward simply because, in certain important areas, he has not lost as much of his credibility as the usual failed veepster would lose.

But here's the thing. Assuming that actual journalism breaks out at any point within the Beltway, it's going to take much more heavy lifting to recreate Ryan's image than it took to build it in the first place. In the campaign that just ended, Paul Ryan was exposed as a thoroughgoing lightweight, both as a politician and as a policy thinker. As a national candidate, to borrow an old phrase from Bob Knight, Ryan couldn't lead a whore to bed. (Judging by the appearance schedule that the Romney people handed Ryan late in the campaign, Ryan seemed to be running against Alexander Hamilton Stephens for vice-president of the Confederate States Of America.) And, removed from the warm cocoon of Beltway wisdom in which they were nurtured, his vaunted "ideas" fell all to pieces around him as the country repeatedly demonstrated that it didn't believe a word of what he was saying and had no intention of buying what he was selling. By the time Joe Biden got finished laughing at him, Ryan looked like someone groping madly for the bottom of the pool with the tips of his toes.

But, as Kilgore says, he's not out there trying to be vice-president any more. He's back within the cocoon, and the current Speaker of the House is shakily trying to work out a deal with the president while half his caucus is sending out for pitchforks and hempen rope. Sooner or later, the Irreconcilables will be looking for a leader slightly less oily than Eric Cantor. By then, I'm sure, we'll have read at least three lengthy profiles of how Paul Ryan, king wonk, has come back to the House to think his big ideas again. Stay tuned for this.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io