Nominating a future leader of the party is a priceless gift that can only be given by a man with vision who actually cares about the future of the country.
Neutralizing someone who could be a future leader and set back your political agenda is a political ploy that has been used before. Teddy Roosevelt was picked as VP to side track him into oblivion. Due to the death of the man doing the picking it did not work as expected.
Troll Zotz, Romney Ryan will win
The Republicans have a deep bench of excellent future potential Presidents in the House. Cantor is the obvious one that comes to mind, but there are others. In addition there are many talented young Republican governors and senators.
That is why the Teddy Roosevelt analogy dosen’t fly.
Sometimes things are as they appear—I belive this is one of those times (and there are few on this board that can match my cynicism towards Beltway politics).