My wife has a very clever line about what happens to people when they rise to a certain level of success, fame, and wealth. (Or when they are born with unusual beauty.) She says, "They've gone outside the feedback loop."

That phrase has some political application.

It ought to be obvious to anybody who has ever door-knocked for a candidate that Paul Ryan's Medicare plans represent a huge problem for Republicans. Not necessarily an insuperable or lethal problem, but a problem that must be overcome—and certainly not a plus.

The problem arises not only with senior citizens, but also with working-age adults. You can maybe, maybe convince senior citizens that Ryan's plans will exempt them and only affect people under 55. But the harder Republicans work to sell that message, the more likely it is that people under 55 will begin to notice, "Wait a minute: this could affect me!"

Again, not insuperable. But real.

Yet there is a claque of writers on the right who seem to see it as their job to endlessly reassure the Republican world: nothing to worry about! Paul's plans are a huge plus! The more America hears about them, the better Americans will like them!

My suggestion to conservative writers: candidates for high office are already surrounded by people paid to flatter them. There's no need to undertake the job for free. As is, some of you risk becoming for Paul Ryan what Moody's and Standard & Poor's became for the mortgage industry: the people who enabled the bubble—and shirked their duty to prevent an eminently preventable bust.