Has Paul Ryan Lost His Mind-- Or Is He Just Pretending To Have Lost His Mind?

Maybe you don't believe that Ryan fled from the field of battle when he noticed that Randy Bryce's @IronStache momentum was leaving him with no pathway to reelection. And maybe you believe that the Speaker of the House decided he really needed to be home in Janesville 7 days a week so he could spend the next few years teaching little Sammy and Charlie how to kill animals with bows and arrows. If you believe the latter, you may believe what he told the Wisconsin Republican convention Saturday as well. He did warn Republicans to watch out for the blue wave headed their way but... he also claimed Señor Trumpanzee will be an asset to GOP candidates this fall in states like Wisconsin that he narrowly won.

With help from the Kremlin in just a few carefully targeted counties, Trump took Wisconsin 1,405,284 (47.22%) to 1,382,536 (46.45%), less than 1%. 23 Wisconsin counties flipped from having voted for Obama in 2012 to Trump in 2016: Adams, Buffalo, Columbia, Crawdford, Door, Dunn, Forest, Grant, Jackson, Juneau, Kenosha, Lafayette, Lincoln, Marquette, Pepin, Price, Racine, Richland, Sauk, Sawyer, Tempealeau, Vernon, Winnebago. I'm sure Ryan has studied the internal polling and focus groups that show clearly that the 2 counties in his district, Kenosha and Racine are flipping back to the Democrats in November and that independent voters in both counties are not even open to hearing GOP Messaging any longer. But Ryan told gullible reporters after his speech that he doesn't think controversies surrounding Trump are resonating with voters in states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

"The president is strong in these states," Ryan said. "He's an asset. ... Whether I'm running around southern Wisconsin or America, nobody is talking about Stormy Daniels. Nobody is talking about Russia. They're talking about their lives and their problems. They're talking about their communities, they're talking about jobs, they're talking about the economy, they're talking about national security."

Ryan defended his and the Republican record in Congress, including the tax overhaul law he championed, saying "we have gotten a ton of things done."

But he, like other Republicans speaking at the convention before him, warned it could all be quickly be undone.

"The blue wave, as they say it, they want to take it all away," Ryan cautioned.

He also reminisced about his career, telling reporters after his convention speech "I never thought I'd be here in the first place. I wanted to be an economist."

Randy Bryce came right to the point about how he sees this: "I pray Donald Trump campaigns in Wisconsin. With great frequency." David Keith lives in Racine and manages campaign. I'm not certain if he was at the state Republican convention or not but he was well aware of what Ryan had to say there. He laughed and told me that "Paul Ryan sold his soul to the devil and in doing so, lost his seat. He’s now in his final round of auditions for the title role in the Koch’s plan to destroy the country. At the very least, he realizes, he’ll be able to get richer than he already is, in that role."

Eric Hogensen a political operative based in Milwaukee right now, is one of the sharpest minds in Midwest politics. This morning he reminded me that "Looking at the results of special elections throughout the country, its hard to see what Ryan is thinking. There has been a very clear backlash against Trump and the GOP. People are not happy with the Republican policies and they are not happy with Trump. At this point, many GOP members of Congress should be scared. Perhaps that has a little to do with Ryan's choice to leave." Maybe he should remind Paul Ryan... or not.