Ryan in Denial, Where's Romney?

Nothing ages as fast as a defeated presidential ticket (pace McCain/Palin), but the expiration date on this year’s losers has arrived faster than usual.

As Barack Obama starts to shuffle a second-term Cabinet, Paul Ryan emerges from the GOP rubble to blame turnout in “urban areas” for the defeat rather than his ideas on the Budget and Medicare.

“When we watched Virginia and Ohio coming in,” he tells a Wisconsin interviewer, “and...coming in as tight as they were, and looking like we were going to lose them, that’s when it became clear we weren’t going to win.”

Duh. Like much of the media and many pollsters, the Republicans’ dynamic duo was concentrating on the white tip of an electoral iceberg rather than the massive, less visible bulk beneath.

One of the party’s future hopefuls less visible during the debacle, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, is urging Republicans to “stop being the stupid party” and become more inclusive:

“We’ve got to make sure that we are not the party of big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, big anything. We cannot be, we must not be, the party that simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys.”

Explain that to Paul Ryan if you can, Governor, and to Mitt Romney, wherever he is.

Update: Give Ryan points for stubbornness. In yet another interview, he insists the President has no mandate to raise taxes on the rich because last week also “reelected the House Republicans.”

If he and his Tea Party partners persist with their idea of “divided government,” disgusted voters will have to take care of that mistake in 2014.