Since When Did Paul Ryan Become a Liar?
A week ago, Paul Ryans political assets included alongside his chiseled torso, plainspoken Midwestern demeanor, and the unshakable loyalty of the entire Republican Party a firm reputation for honesty among the mainstream media. That reputation has suffered a massive, swift erosion. News stories about his speech at the Republican National Convention focused on its many rhetorical sleights of hand. Over the weekend, the revelation that he dramatically misstated a marathon time added a crucial, accessible piece of evidence to the indictment. Now liberals are calling him Lyin Ryan a nickname that, a few weeks ago, would have seemed silly, like Wimpy Palin. Now mainstream pundits are defending Ryan with versions of the well, all politicians fib defense. Given that this constituency was once portraying Ryan as unusually honest, this represents a huge retreat for his political brand. What happened?
Heres what has not happened: Paul Ryan did not begin telling an unprecedented series of lies that suddenly exposed a predilection for shading the truth. His marathon boast is certainly odd and may well be a deliberate lie, but it could also be a simple failure to recall. The New Yorkers Nicholas Thompson, arguing for the prosecution, contends that for someone who does run seriously, missing a marathon time by as a vast a level as Ryan does is nearly impossible. On the other hand, given that the race occurred in 1990 and was Ryans only marathon, perhaps the explanation is that Ryan just isnt a serious runner.
And Ryans Tampa speech, while pretty dishonest, was not especially so by Ryans standards. Here you can see why Ryan must view the sudden attack of the truth squad so bewilderingly. Ryan has been saying things like this, and worse, all along. The bit where he sadly shakes his head and blames President Obama for the failure of the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission that Ryan killed himself has been a staple of the Ryan shtick for two years. Reporters usually bat their eyes and coo sympathetically. Now it has become evidence of his duplicity .
Ryan seems to have fallen victim to circumstances he didnt quite foresee. The Romney campaign has spent the last several weeks practically daring the national press corps to call out its lies. Well beyond the usual exaggerations of a national campaign, Romney has built its entire message around two accusations you didnt build that and just send them a check that are obviously false. A day before Ryans speech, a Romney adviser told reporters, We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers. The media that had spent the last two and a half years nuzzling gently in Ryans lap had been prodded with sharp sticks and reacted in the predictable fashion, though probably not predictable to Ryan himself.
The thing about Ryan is that he has always resided in a counter-factual universe. He is a product of the hermetically sealed right-wing subculture. Many of the facts taken for granted by mainstream economists have never penetrated his brain. Ryan burst onto the national scene with a dense, fact-laden attack on the financing of Obamas health-care bill that was essentially a series of hallucinations, pseudo-facts cooked up and recirculated by conservative apparatchiks who didnt know what they were talking about or didnt care. His big-think speeches reflect the influence of fact-free conservatives and collapse under scrutiny.
*snip*
A week ago, Paul Ryans political assets included alongside his chiseled torso, plainspoken Midwestern demeanor, and the unshakable loyalty of the entire Republican Party a firm reputation for honesty among the mainstream media. That reputation has suffered a massive, swift erosion. News stories about his speech at the Republican National Convention focused on its many rhetorical sleights of hand. Over the weekend, the revelation that he dramatically misstated a marathon time added a crucial, accessible piece of evidence to the indictment. Now liberals are calling him Lyin Ryan a nickname that, a few weeks ago, would have seemed silly, like Wimpy Palin. Now mainstream pundits are defending Ryan with versions of the well, all politicians fib defense. Given that this constituency was once portraying Ryan as unusually honest, this represents a huge retreat for his political brand. What happened?
Heres what has not happened: Paul Ryan did not begin telling an unprecedented series of lies that suddenly exposed a predilection for shading the truth. His marathon boast is certainly odd and may well be a deliberate lie, but it could also be a simple failure to recall. The New Yorkers Nicholas Thompson, arguing for the prosecution, contends that for someone who does run seriously, missing a marathon time by as a vast a level as Ryan does is nearly impossible. On the other hand, given that the race occurred in 1990 and was Ryans only marathon, perhaps the explanation is that Ryan just isnt a serious runner.
And Ryans Tampa speech, while pretty dishonest, was not especially so by Ryans standards. Here you can see why Ryan must view the sudden attack of the truth squad so bewilderingly. Ryan has been saying things like this, and worse, all along. The bit where he sadly shakes his head and blames President Obama for the failure of the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission that Ryan killed himself has been a staple of the Ryan shtick for two years. Reporters usually bat their eyes and coo sympathetically. Now it has become evidence of his duplicity .
Ryan seems to have fallen victim to circumstances he didnt quite foresee. The Romney campaign has spent the last several weeks practically daring the national press corps to call out its lies. Well beyond the usual exaggerations of a national campaign, Romney has built its entire message around two accusations you didnt build that and just send them a check that are obviously false. A day before Ryans speech, a Romney adviser told reporters, We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers. The media that had spent the last two and a half years nuzzling gently in Ryans lap had been prodded with sharp sticks and reacted in the predictable fashion, though probably not predictable to Ryan himself.
The thing about Ryan is that he has always resided in a counter-factual universe. He is a product of the hermetically sealed right-wing subculture. Many of the facts taken for granted by mainstream economists have never penetrated his brain. Ryan burst onto the national scene with a dense, fact-laden attack on the financing of Obamas health-care bill that was essentially a series of hallucinations, pseudo-facts cooked up and recirculated by conservative apparatchiks who didnt know what they were talking about or didnt care. His big-think speeches reflect the influence of fact-free conservatives and collapse under scrutiny.
*snip*
