House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) has spent a lot of time denying any interest in the presidency.

Last week, when his office put out a 43-second video, the Drudge Report tweeted an all-caps siren reading “Paul Ryan launches first campaign ad?” Despite the video so resembling a campaign ad that even NPR’s Steve Inskeep joked this morning that he got choked up by the swelling music, Mr. Ryan’s people have aggressively swatted down speculation that the Congressman and unsuccessful 2012 vice presidential candidate was indeed waiting in the wings to be drafted should a consensus not be reached on any of the candidates who have been working to earn the votes of Republican primary voters over the last year.

Mr. Ryan’s press secretary AshLee Strong tweeted back at Drudge simply “no” while his communications director Mike Ricci wrote “Nope, but thanks for the clicks!” Mr. Ryan himself has sought to float above the grubby business of presidential primary politics, telling those speculating that he was fanning the flames of a “Draft Ryan” movement to “knock it off,” even as serious observers of the political scene wonder about his actions. Those wondering include today’s New York Times, which suggests that by, for example, recently meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, Mr. Ryan is “waging a parallel campaign.”