Even Ryan didn't think they could win
Paul Ryan was so confident that Romney/Ryan was the next administration that he had a plan b. He took advantage of the Wisconsin law that allowed him to run for his House seat at the same time he was running for VP. Lucky for him, he actually won that. Of course, if Romney had won, Ryan would just have resigned his seat and they would have had a special election. Guess who would have paid for that? Wow, what a stand up guy. What does that tell you about the their priorities?