After Mitt's little gaffe during his VP announcement this morning, the Koch-funded group Freedomworks sent an email blast out to their members from organization President Matt Kibbe, who was evidently sent into an ecstatic, nearly-religious reverie over it. Here's a snippet:

“Join me in welcoming the next president of the United States, Paul Ryan!”

For a flash of a moment, I thought the good guys had achieved the unachievable, dragging the top echelons of the GOP squarely back into the intellectual camp of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally-limited government, ownership-based entitlement reform, fundamental tax reform, sound money, and individual opportunity.

It wasn’t quite that. It was the actual presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney, making a slight gaffe in introducing his choice for a vice presidential running mate. Maybe it was an intentional, subliminal signal to tea partiers and constitutional conservatives? After all, many of us would have preferred Ryan at the top of the ticket.

That said, Romney made a good choice — a great choice in fact. It was a real indication to grassroots America that the Romney camp is willing to finally engage on the big issues that matter most in this election. It’s not quite enough to say that Obama has failed, we know that. Incumbent presidents should not win reelection with persistent unemployment over 8 percent and a staggering $16 trillion in debt. Clearly Obama needs to be fired. But what are you, the Republicans, actually for?

[...]

Paul Ryan is one of us. Full disclosure: I have known him and worked with him since I was a fellow budget staffer on Capitol Hill in 1993. I like him; I think he is a good person. Since those early days, I have known Paul to share many of the principles I hold dear.

I admit to a chuckle over the fantasy President paragraph. Paul Ryan is no more qualified to be President than Sarah Palin, but that won't stop the lunatics at Freedomworks from mobilizing their considerable astroturf assets for the corporate overlords they serve.

Poor Matt Kibbe. It must have been disappointing to be jolted out of his Presidential fantasy by the reality that Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee, and not even the Very Serious, Courageous, Disingenuous Paul Ryan can save his candidacy.