R.L.G. at Democracy in America wants Romney to select Paul Ryan as his running mate:

Paul Ryan will probably not win Mr Romney Wisconsin. At 42, he’s never won a statewide election nor held an executive office. But he is the GOP’s one-man brain-trust on the most critical issue facing the country. His ideas have started a furious debate. He would not be a safe pick, but he would be a courageous one, and in choosing him, Mr Romney would show America a side of himself he has not revealed so far.

Choosing Paul Ryan for VP would be politically risky, but I’m not sure that it follows that Romney would be showing courage by making that choice. Romney has already chosen to adhere to the new party line on Ryan and entitlement reform, which suggests that he is still mostly concerned to say all the right things to satisfy members of his party. That may be unavoidable, and the policy position he has adopted as a result might have some merit, but it doesn’t mean that it is courageous. Choosing Ryan as the VP nominee would send an even stronger signal that Romney wants everyone to believe that he is adhering to the party line, and that he is so eager to prove it that he is willing to put a clearly under-qualified Congressman next in line to the Presidency. The word that comes to mind here is not courageous, but irresponsible.

Then again, if Romney agrees with the claim that running on Ryan’s proposal is cunning electoral politicking, the selection of Ryan as a running mate that R.L.G. favors might be nothing more than another calculated risk. Perhaps the reason we have never seen Romney show the side of himself that drives him to take enormous gambles with his own political fortunes is that this side doesn’t exist. Putting Ryan on the ticket would not be and would not be seen as a courageous move. It would be perceived instead as the latest desperate bid to shore up his support among conservatives. A Paul Ryan selection would be interpreted as a sign of Romney’s intra-party weakness.