“The attraction to Ryan is he is the total package: brains, guts, political skills, perseverance, perspective, humility and most important, convictions predicated on conservatism. He is neither defensive nor self-righteous on the articulation of time-tested, commonsense Burke-ian, free-market, limited, enumerated representative republicanism,” Republican strategist Mary Matalin told POLITICO. “His weakness is not all in his party have his strengths.”

But, Matalin said in an email, Ryan shouldn’t run this year…

“He ain’t getting in this time. He likes policy more than politics,” said one conservative House Republican. “He [has] been preparing for a decade to be Budget Committee chairman. If we have a sovereign debt crisis, his Medicare plan will look exceedingly moderate.”…

“I’ve heard him say on numerous occasions, just to colleagues, that his kids are just too little,” said one of Ryan’s fellow House Republicans.