Go off the record with Republican operatives and the "we're so excited about Paul Ryan" facade, never very convincing to begin with, crumbles quickly. (And it's so much fun to watch!)

Like Democrats working House and Senate campaigns, Republicans involved with those campaigns know that Paul Ryan is an anchor Mitt Romney threw to Republican candidates, and phrasing that knowledge in delightful ways like "This is the day the music died."

Oh, but there's more. What's especially fun about the Ryan choice is that he's a problem for Republicans because he is the embodiment of their policies. You know, the unpopular policies they try to disguise from the majority of voters:

"Whether or not they [the Romney campaign] want to say that they have their own plan on Day One, or whatever they’re doing, it doesn’t change the reality of them having to own the Ryan plan. How is that in the wheelhouse of creating jobs?" added a GOP consultant.

It's not! Actually, the Ryan plan is in the wheelhouse of destroying jobs as well as slashing services across the population, including to the people who are now jobless because of Ryan. And even if, as Mitt Romney bizarrely tries to run away from the policies of the guy he picked as his running mate only days ago, he reveals that own budget plans differ slightly in the details, the impact on middle- and working-class people would be the same—and explaining how his plan is different from Ryan's should make that clear to anyone paying even a little bit of attention.