I thought I'd figured out what Mitt was doing prior to this Ryan pick. Basketball analogy within!
Here I thought I had Romney read like a book. Crappy candidate but persistently on Obama's heels due to the economy. As things developed, the basic gist of Romney's strategy seemed to be: do not deviate, ever, from right wing orthodoxy, do nothing to rock the base's boat.
It's like if you were 10 points behind in a basketball game. Not great, but within reach. Don't take any big chances to close the gap that could cause turnovers and widen the gap. Just make sure you stay within that 10 points. This would be picking Portman, which I assumed he was going to do.
Then, when you're in the last two or three minutes, you do the GOP equivalent of fouling Obama every time he touches the ball and hoping he bricks his free throw attempts: a billion dollars of SuperPAC negative ad blitz in swing states, making it difficult in every possible way for poor black people to vote in Cuyahoga County, OH, etc.
You're still probably going to lose, but depending on how poorly Obama shoots free throws and how well your team can score quick baskets, you might have a 25 percent chance of winning.
It actually seemed like a reasonable plan for victory for a longshot challenger, possibly the best odds Romney could get. Not winning odds, but possible/doable.
This Ryan pick feels like Romney saw the lead creep from 10 to 13, got panicky and instead of sticking with coach's plan, just started hoisting three pointer attempts from half court in the middle of the third quarter.