Some bloggers and others have taken my comments in this article the wrong way. I did not mean to say that I, personally, wanted Paul Ryan to run for president, or think it’s important to have someone with his level of policy knowledge in the race. I didn’t want him to run (in part because I didn’t think he could win the nomination). I was making a generalization about conservative journalists and think tankers that doesn’t apply to all of the group’s members.
One additional point I’d make is that the presidential preferences of this group have a pretty limited impact. In 1996, the two Republican candidates this group liked least — Bob Dole and Pat Buchanan — got the most primary votes. In 2008, Giuliani had the support of a clear plurality of those members of this group who expressed an opinion.