At a basic level, what bothers me about politicians who lie, especially at a national level, is that the deceptions are insulting. A candidate who knows the truth, but makes a deliberate decision to deceive, is working from the assumption that Americans are suckers.
And last night, Paul Ryan made painfully clear that he thinks we're all profound idiots who'll believe an endless string of lies, so long as they're packaged well and presented with conviction. Jonathan Cohn suggested last night's address may have been the "most dishonest convention speech" ever delivered, and I can't think of a close second.
It was a truly breathtaking display of brazen dishonesty. Paul Ryan looked America in the eye and without a hint a shame, lied to our face.
Ryan lied about President Obama's auto-industry rescue, blaming the administration for a plant closing orchestrated by President Bush. Ryan lied about Medicare, falsely accusing Obama of undermining the system. Ryan lied about the debt downgrade, falsely blaming the president for a downgrade caused by Ryan and congressional Republicans.
Ryan lied about the Simpson-Bowles commission, falsely accusing Obama of walking away from debt reduction, and ignoring the fact that Ryan himself fought to ensure the Simpson-Bowles commission never even released a report. Ryan lied about his plans for the safety net, saying he intends to "protect the weak" when he budget plan intends to gut public investments that benefit the poor.
Ryan lied about the debt, saying Obama "has added more debt than any other president before him," when the truth is, that was George W. Bush -- who added over $5 trillion to the debt thanks in large part to congressional votes cast by Paul Ryan.
Ryan lied about the Recovery Act, calling the stimulus "a case of political patronage, corporate welfare, and cronyism at their worst," when reality shows the exact opposite. Ryan lied about small businesses, accusing Obama of raising their taxes, when he actually cut their taxes.
Paul Ryan, the man the media and Republicans celebrate as a bold truth-teller, told one lie after another, demonstrating a near-pathological disdain for honesty. His speech presented no substantive ideas, no policy solutions, and no bold positions on any key issue, but it included enough falsehoods to choke a fact-checker -- all because he assumes you're a fool and journalists are too incompetent to separate fact from fiction.
Is he right?
Dan Amira called the speech "appallingly disingenuous and shamelessly hypocritical," but added this gem:
Most of the millions of people who watched the speech on television tonight do not read fact-checks or obsessively consume news 15 hours a day, and will never know how much Ryan's case against Obama relied on lies and deception. Ryan's pants are on fire, but all America saw was a barn-burner.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer said he counted "seven or eight" claims that "fact checkers will have some opportunities to dispute," but concluded the lies didn't matter because it was "a powerful speech" that gave Republicans what they "were hoping for."
CNN's Erin Burnett added, "There will be issues with some of the facts, but it motivated people."
Let that sentence roll around in your brain for a moment, and ponder what it means for our country.
Ryan lied uncontrollably, but that's not terribly important. It undermines our democracy and the basic norms of the American political system, but no one seems to care anymore. Ryan thinks we're idiots, but his cynicism matters less than the electoral implications.
The United States is better than Paul Ryan's dishonesty. It has to be. Our future depends on it.
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They so out of touch -- they just want to hear what they want to hear --- they keep saying the same lies over and over again --- They know people know but they dont care!
Their truth is their lies.
New code word = "hard truths".
Rachel - you have been consistently asking the MSM to step up and call out the Republicans on their pants-on-fire lies. It appears you will have to continue to do so right up to election night. You are fighting the good fight for all of America. Thank you.
GOP = Guilty Of Perjury.
we need a real person to run this nation iam tired of waiting i want in one the fight
Real journalism is dead. Fox news is blatantly a trumpet for the Republican party. Actual news sources, are afraid to say "Liar" because they are afraid of being called biased, by Fox News, so they slough off the journalistic duties, to "fact checkers" I thought a reporter or a journalist was a fact-checker. At least they used to be.
My eyes told me that among the tags under "Filed Under" was "pants on fire"...
Thank you Rachel for expressing exactly how I feel...a smoldering anger fueled by the consistent routine of lies delivered by pseudo-sincere hypocrites who rely on relentless repetition to convince the uninformed.
Increasingly, the Republican elite are like the Royals who would have the peasant rabble cleared from their path because they were lesser beings, little more than a nuisance, a reminder of the sins of excess when people around you are homeless, hungry and destitute.
They believe they are the chosen few and that they deserve better than the common folk. And
They allow the poor and working class to live
in their America while working and catering to them, but they become tired and resentful of the whining about sustainable living wages and social injustices.
The sector of the populace that harbors bigotry, distrust of Government, Evangelical Right Wing Doctrine or any other fringe beliefs becomes their acolytes through pandering propaganda, twisted truths and a litany of lies.
Both Clinton and Obama are particularly hated by the Republican Elite because both men came from the common class and dared to rise to the highest office in the land.
It is likely the Republican's wouldn't begrudge the Social Safety Net if only the 99% would shut up and do as they were told.
Even fox news has called it deceiving: Check out #2 on the link
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/30/paul-ryans-speech-in-three-words/#ixzz251gyeVTo
Even Fox News called it deceiving:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/30/paul-ryans-speech-in-three-words/#ixzz251gyeVTo
Republican Rawhide
Lyin’, lyin’, lyin’
Lyin’, lyin’, lyin’
Lyin’, lyin’, lyin’
Lyin’, lyin’, lyin’
Romney!
Lyin’, lyin’, lyin’
Though the facts are cryin’
Keep the rightwing lyin’
Romney!
On TV, at conventions,
Parade your false pretentions
To say it’s rainin’ when it’s really pee;
All the truth you’re missin’
Is wind in which you’re pissin’
Wishin’ that your lies could set you free!
Tell a lie, stare ‘em down,
Stare ‘em down, tell a lie,
Tell a lie, stare ‘em down,
Romney!
Lie again, strike a pose,
Strike a pose, lie again,
Lie again, strike a pose,
Romney!
Keep lyin’, lyin’, lyin’
Though your party’s dyin’
Keep the rightwing lyin’
Romney!
Don’t try for understandin’
Just lie and call it brandin’
In ads that your casino crony buys;
But you’re miscalculatin’
The White House won’t be waitin’
Not for someone telling all your lies.
Tell a lie, stare ‘em down,
Stare ‘em down, tell a lie,
Tell a lie, stare ‘em down,
Romney!
Lie again, strike a pose,
Strike a pose, lie again,
Lie again, strike a pose,
Romney!
Lyin’, lyin’, lyin’
Lyin’, lyin’, lyin’
Lyin’, lyin’, lyin’
Lyin’, lyin’, lyin’
Romney!
Romney!
Ryan lies are easy to fact check and if people in this country would bother to look up what this man said they would see the truth. For a man who has spent most of his life living off the people of this country to complain about government debt that he helped to make by his votes (you can check his record) is a joke. He lied and it was just to fire up the base, and I ask does the base of the gop/tea party care about the truth or do they just hate this president for who he is and not for his views or policies. I have been called harsh when I said that many on the right are hateful of this man's race, but the facts are the facts. I know several people who will vote for romney and ryan as they just wants the RAG out of office. If this isnt racist then I dont know what racism is. If the american people dont start using their brains and look up facts they will be controlled by the business and wealthy elite. Look at citizens united and it is the biggest sell out of the country by the court. Wake up america you are being lied to by the gop/tea party.
The Republicans self-negating positions - especially regarding their anti-"collectivism" philo-policies -- are laid bare in the accusation that Obama allowed (is to blame) for the closing of any business. If the "You did build that" proposition had ANY basis in fact the plants in Kenosha & Janesville would be thriving. Indeed, how can Ryan suggest that private capital is the answer to our economic woes when it is blindingly obvious that there has been ample time for the "Captains of Industry" to step up & transform those plants into shining beacons of capitalist/individualist productivity? He cannot. And that is the problem with the rhetoric of Lyin' Ryan.
Paul Ryan Lies !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
its so simple we need me in office i,ll show you true life and real love
"...in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods." Adoph Hitler, Mein Kampf
i could hardly bring myself to listen to all ryan's speech. i would love to have a rerun of ryan's words of caustion on mitt romney before he became a vp wannabe.
he is a pathetic, public persona who left his integrity at home that night.
olgaolivia
austin, texas
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing" Edmund Burke
Where are the hard questions from the larger mainstream media?
Where is the courage to confront the spin?
How different really is Syrian figurehead, Bashar al-Assad (metaphorically speaking) from Romney and/or Bashir Assad's younger brother Maher al-Assad, Commander of the Syrian army's elite Fourth Armored Division (metaphorically speaking) from Ryan?
how do i become a member i have good world ideas and i love to talk to people even better we i have good things to say
i need to be heard
no one really cares about people olny when they need something from them why
Let me get this straight...Republicans across the country are implementing voter id requirements, supposedly to stop voter fraud (people presenting themselves as someone they are not.) How is the act of politicians blatantly lying to the American people not voter fraud? Ryan is obviously, knowingly, defrauding the uninformed voter. I'm used to the peons in the campaign lying, but this has brought politics to a whole new dirty level.
"Office is considered as a species of property, and government rather as a means of promoting individual interests than as an instrument created solely for the service of the people. Corruption in some and in others a perversion of correct feelings and principles divert government from its legislative ends and make it an engine for the support of the few at the expense of the many."
Read more of the sentiments of Andrew Jackson, our 7th President, at
http://lifeamongtheordinary.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-establishment-paradise-part-three.html
Ryans distortion of facts reminds me of George Orwell's 1894. Where Big Brother and the party can alter history and the public instantly believes it, because they are blinded with rage and rhetoric. My theory is that current corruption and greed will succumb to the fall the fiat system and then you are all doomed. So if you are not in debt and actually have a savings account that is larger than your visa, maybe invest in hard gold or silver. Maybe even copper. O, and don't vote repub.
I'm disgusted by the whole "show" call the elections - which in my mind are not about doing what's best for the country, but about the amount of money one raises and the power that it buys. Then those who are "bought" into a position of power have to "pay back" those who sponsored them by saying and doing things for one group or another.
I have made a point (easy to do) of NOT watching these shenanigans, but in reading the local paper, I was even more disgusted by a comment that Ann Romney said in her speech..."I'm not sure if men really understand this, but I don't thing there's a woman in American who really expects her life to be easy..."
HELLO? As a woman I resent that comment like you can't believe....My life hasn't been a bed or roses, but I certainly don't EXPECT it to be hard...
This is shocking? Paul Ryan signed up to be VP to a pathological liar who is disliked by many voters in a shot to fast forward his political career. You gotta lie lie lie if you are going run with Mitt. It's the golden rule.
The fact that he or any other Republican can rant about the debt when George W. Bush created the mess with two wars (they Ryan voted for) and tax cuts for the rich (Ryan liked those too) is galling. But... if they can trick enough middle class swing state voters.. it could work.
I am seeing the MSM talk about Romney and Ryan's loose use of facts more and more in recent weeks. It's long overdue. The media can't just let political candidates stand up and claim the sky is green without doing THEIR JOB and informing the public of the truth. Let's hope this continues.
Hey Paul, Medicare ... you didn't build that!
that is very interesting jaime! now how do you feel about the article, which is about paul ryan's proven lies in his speech last night? does your great work ethic and charitable generosity allow you to overlook facts?