Ryan has not noticeably moved Romney to the right on the campaign trail. Romney, though, has dragged Ryan away from his conservative positions and his intellectual clarity.

What does this portend for a potential Romney-Ryan White House? When Romney tapped Ryan in August, one conservative activist told me he thought that if Republicans win in November, Ryan might be congressional conservatives’ lobbyist in the White House.

Ryan’s behavior over the past month, however, suggests he would instead be Romney’s tool for dragging conservatives over to Romney’s positions.

“That’s exactly what will happen,” one former Ryan staffer told me this week.