Getty Images
Paul Ryan is not above exaggerating his athletic prowess, among other things.
One of the more unexpected political controversies of the weekend involved Paul Ryan and, of all things, a marathon.
Last week, in an interview with Hugh Hewitt, Paul Ryan said that he had run a marathon in under three hours, or, more precisely, "I had a two hour and fifty-something." That is quite speedy, and running fans in the forums of Letsrun.com treated the claim with great skepticism. The Internet bears no trace of the run, and Ryan doesn't have the extremely lean frame of your typical fast marathoner. Also, people who run that quickly are generally neurotic about their times. Shouldn't Ryan remember his exactly? "He is too intense and driven to just forget something like that," one commentator wrote.
Slate and Runner's World investigated. Questions were raised, given the criticism of Ryan's honesty in his convention speech. This evening, the terrific running journalist Scott Douglas figured out that Ryan had actually run a 4:01 in the Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1990, when he was a college student.
Pressed for an explanation, Ryan said through a spokesperson he mixed up his brother's time with his own.
Now, I couldn't care less about Ryan's athletic abilities, and the fact that he got caught lying about his marathon time is trivial when compared to the lies he told in his convention speech last week.
But therein lies the point: a pattern is emerging and it's an important one. When Paul Ryan talks about public policy, he says things that aren't true. When Paul Ryan talks about President Obama's record, he says things that aren't true. And when Paul Ryan talks about himself, he says things that aren't true.
I realize much of the political establishment resists this, because so many are invested in the notion that Ryan is a bold truth-teller with unimpeachable credibility. David Brooks defended the candidate's convention falsehoods by blaming Romney speechwriters for forcing poor Ryan to say things that aren't true.
But given the pattern, isn't it time to reevaluate those old assumptions? Isn't it possible that the establishment that celebrated Ryan's alleged honesty simply fell for a con?
James Fallows had a good piece on why he thinks the marathon lie matters.
We've all exaggerated to make ourselves look better. You've probably done it. I know I have. (Let's not think about the whole category of "what happens on first dates.") But out of prudent self-protection, most people have a sense of "situational awareness" when it comes to self-burnishment. Somebody you're talking to in a bar, and you're never likely to see again, is in one category. Somebody interviewing you for national broadcast is in another. That is what I'm having a hard time fully understanding.
You're on a nationwide show. You're one of the handful of people most prominently in the national eye. You know that everything you say is going to be recorded, parsed, and examined. And still -- last week, not at a freshman mixer or in a Jaycees speech somewhere -- you happily reel off a claim that is impressive enough to get people's interest and admiration, and specific enough to be easily testable. [...]
This doesn't fit the normal model of "efficient" political or human truth-shaving. It was a lie that was totally unnecessary -- if he'd said he had run a five-hour marathon, we'd still know that he's physically very fit. And telling it in his current state of 24/7-scrutiny and prominence was either unbelievably naive ("no one will ever double-check this") or plain reckless ("I don't care if they do").
I know Republicans hate the comparison, but the media's treatment of Al Gore in 2000 is relevant. If Gore had been caught lying about a marathon time, it would have been a huge story precisely because the establishment had decided that the Democrat was a "serial exaggerator," and looked for evidence to reinforce the narrative.
Again, it's not just the exaggeration; it's the pattern of trying to deceive the public. Paul Krugman noted today the story of Rosie Ruiz who pretended to win the Boston Marathon in 1980, sneaking onto the course about a mile from the end.
"Obviously nobody cares how fast Mr. Ryan can run, and even his strange marathon misstatement wouldn't be worth talking about in isolation," Krugman explained. "What makes this incident so striking is, instead, the way it resonates with the essential Rosie-Ruizness of Mr. Ryan's whole political persona, which is built around big boasts about accomplishments he hasn't accomplished."
Leave a Comment:
When you can't RUN on the truth, you make stuff up. That's pretty much the Romney/Ryan m.o. in a nutshell.
And that friends is a terrible sign of weakness and incompetence.You'd think with the state of the economy,the wars,the debt these guys will have something real to talk about an offer clear alternatives.
I hope Obama and Biden point this out,as a serious weakness on the Romney/Ryan Campaign.
I think Ryan is so wrapped up in himself..he just tries to make himself look good. I truly believe the only reason Romney chose him was the fact that Romney, himself, has no budget proposal. This is an old proposal and they still want to use it, but is it the truth or is it fiction? Both of them have said one thing and turned around and said another, on many occasions, just to satisfy their followers..when in fact they have no intentions of doing either!!
Reminds me of that old saying 'If you can't wow them with brilliance, you baffle them with bull sh-t!
And when Romney/Ryan can't run ON the truth, they run FROM the truth, pointing fingers all the while.
We need someone with enough digits to hold a pen." ~ Republican stretegist Grover Norquist.
Or just the erect middle digit.
That's the key, finaledit. HIs controllers haven't told him what the policies will be. They don't need him to know, especially with the danger that ,in an unscripted moment, Mitt might reveal what he's been told. They need him to have an opposable thumb, a recognizable signature, and deference to those who bought him.
"I was valedictorian and captain of my high school football team and nailed the homecoming queen."
"I got a four year scholarship to an Ivy League college, and went to England on a Rhodes Scholarship."
"I won both the Nobel Prize and the Pulitzer Prize. You can look it up, on WikipediA."
And when I go to take a leak behind yon barn, four and twenty blackbirds can sit, comfortably, on my dick.
This is just like putting your dog on the roof of your car or tackling a fellow student and cutting his hair for Romney. In and of themselves, these incidents don't really matter all that much. Taken as part of an overall larger pattern of behavior, however, they mean a great deal. These guys are at the point now where if they say the sky is blue, half of America will question if they are actually telling the truth.
"These guys are at the point now where if they say the sky is blue, half of America will question if they are actually telling the truth" On the other side of that coin, if they say 'we will take care of our poor and needy Americans', half of the country will believe they are actually telling the truth.
I disagree with the impact of both of the Romney incidents - my mind was made up the first time i heard the dog story and confirmed with the violence of the haircut abuse - let's name both of them for what they are - narcissistic superiority and intolerance - the dog didn't poop b/c of turkey - that's fear at the upmost and you hose the dog off and put him back in that cage - argh - it speaks volumes!
You are talking about a man that could have hired a car limo and a driver to transport his dog. I think he is cheap, cheap, cheap and worships money. Poor dog. It deserves better.
Do you not understand? The Ryan budget cut his times by over 25%.
Wish I'd thought of that.
He is the perfect running mate for the candidate who brought us 30 episodes of "chronicling Mitt's Mendacity"
Birds of a feather?
It's really simple. Paul Ryan's a dick and a fraud, in that order.
He's that superficial piece of shhit that mediocrities liked and you could never figure out what it was that they liked. He wasn't stupid but he wasn't exceptionally bright. He's the guy that desperately wanted position without having any desire or intention whatsoever of actually earning it with accomplishment. He's the American Dream gone awry as a metastasizing cancer: You can be whatever you want to be -- if you fool the idiots.
Shorter Ryan: "Of course I'm lying to you! And I will keep on doing it- because IT WORKS!"
The manufactured conviction that piece of steaming shhit acted out in that speech at the convention and that Orwell would have shook his finger at has earned that basturd my everlasting disgust. I will never forget that. Ever. I can't stand frauds, especially the ones that get taken seriously for no reason. Add in the heartlessness completely and transparently on display in his true policy intentions -- not the fraudulent ones in that speech, -- and we're talking one guy for which I truly, truly, truly hope the hell of his religion exists.
Calling Paul Ryan a dick is an insult to dicks.
I don't know who to agree with DisgustedWithItAlll or Chris Rhetts! Nice job guys!
Knowing all these things to what the Republicans, extremists of hatred, and extreme wealthy has done to President Obama in setting him up to not get another term in the White House, especially with someone to the likes of Newt Gringich. It was noticed how Gingrich sits there with his sort of hideous laugh. This Gringich sits there with all his supposed cleverness in laughter, but really he is like some sick Psychopath getting his pleasure and enjoyment off the misery, despair, and death of others. There must be something drastically wrong with these Republicans, extremists of hatred, and extreme wealthy where they proclaim so much to be Christians and for the betterment of people that they have got to have something mentally wrong with them.
At least in the US, all ideologies of the right are a character defect. The safe general rule of human behavior is that basically, people are no damn good, but those on the right are the worst of a bad lot.
"mentally wrong with them?" No, no, no, no.....they're just crazy like a fox. Their strategy is simple. Their ideology and politics is to improve all things for the extremely wealthy and corporations. HOWEVER, that segment just doesn't have enough voters to get you elected. So..... doop the ignorant masses into thinking that you are interested in their causes.... Christianity, abortion, gun control, anti-gay rights.... these are all the hot-buttons of the stupid. Now you got their votes!
It's a simple tactic and unfortunately has been proven to work (2000 through 2008)
After all the gobsmacking lies Ryan has publicly told, who could have predicted it would be something like this that would finally get him to within spitting distance of being hoisted by his own petard.
These two should be nominated for Pres.and Vice Pres.of the national liar's club.But the question is which one do you put on top?Oh and was'nt Ryan quarterback of the Green Bay Packer's?
What one may call a pattern, indeed, another may call a pathology!
Be it Paul Ryan's penchant to prevaricate or the MSM's complicity in the matter, as nary a mention of at least "the pattern" exists outside of this thread. -Kevo
Fast and loose?....why not just cut to the fact...he and romney invent the "truth" each time they speak. One may call them liars or one may think of them as not being man enough to say they do not know...the result is the same.....and we deserve better.
This mendacity actually is a thread in the whole free marketeer narrative—something which argues that we have to give more money (and hence power) to the rich, on the basis that it promotes individual freedom! I explain here how Milton Friedman created this dishonest narrative: http://therepublicon.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-myth-of-free-market.html
Everyone needs to keep the focus on the PATTERN that is developing. Otherwise, dems will be seen as poring over irrelevant facts (such as the marathon time) and not taken seriously. We need to have this PATTERN prominent so that swing voters get the clear picture of who/what Ryan really is.
There already is the Mitt's Medacity thing, how about a Ryan's Lyin'? At his current pace he might even outpace his 'partner's' outlandish record.
Even with all this evidence out there regarding the lies of these two,.....they are STILL neck and neck with POTUS. That is just amazing to me.... The people on the right just don't give a @!$%# who they get in there. Just somebody, anybody but Obama. Sad. And scarey. Be careful what you wish for people.
Someone I know, who is normally very intelligent, posted on Facebook a Youtube saying "Obama admits he's a Muslim"! She would believe Anything that was bad and not bother to check it for truth. She's a very consertive "Christian" and loves Romney. I doubt if she's spent five minutes investigating what Mormons really believe. Oh my word. I have LDS friends and I don't discuss with them their religious beliefs because I think they are nuts. So my round about point is yes, the far right people want somebody, anybody, other than Obama. It baffles me, I have to admit.
Is the photo of him playing touch football suppose to conjure up images for us of JFK? This jerk is the most transparent, obnoxious a-hole in politics.
Running a play out of the Dan Quayle playbook?
listening to Paul Ryan reminds of Pinocchio,just waiting for his nose to grow
When you have the guy who is known in the Political World as, The Kill Medicare Guy. Walking round, or standing rather, on national tv saying "Under a Romney/Ryan administration. We will protect and secure Medicare. Not just for this generation, but future ones as well." That's your cue to not believe anything else that comes out of his mouth.
Mitt picked this guy. Because Ryan can tell a really good sounding lie. The down side is. He's just not really good at telling a good lie. 20 years in politics. And Ryan hasn't learned the basic rule of lying. Never tell a lie that can be fact checked. Never tell a lie with specific details. And always tell a lie within just this side of truth. With just enough grey areas to confuse the lot.
The GOP may want to forget the Bush years. But if Ryan wants to lie. He should go back and watch Bush's. Bush was the best liar The GOP had in years. You had no clue just how little he knew about being President. Until after he was re elected. And then it was too late.
If he will lie about something as seemingly small as this, he will lie about the bigger things- especially if he thinks he can get away with it. Fact checkers or no, if he believes he can fool most of the people to get by, he will do it.
These two are reminding me of the Drew Carey's version of "Whose Line is it Anyway?"- where everything is made up and the points (in this case, the facts) don't matter.
How apropos is this...
People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I've learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one's reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one's master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person's view requires to be faked…The man who lies to the world, is the world's slave from then on…There are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all."
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
All of the above is true. However, the most important thing is that Romney and Ryan want to take away freedoms that men and women have fought (and yes, definitely) died for.
A legend in his own mind...
The problem is that Romney/Ryan followers decide what they want to believe -- Obama is a Kenyan Muslim, there is no Global Warming, Darwin was a hoax. Steeped in the requirement to believe that the Pope is infallible or Mary was a Virgin, or that there were GOlden tablets raining from Heaven in the Middle West and Jesus is coming back to Missouri, the scientific truth becomes irrelevant on all matters.
I posted above about the Obama is a Muslim Youtube video. I placed a url to Fact Check.org which says it was malicious editing, and here's the response:
Im not sure what kind of "malicious" editing there was. It was pretty clear when he was parising IRAN not to mention he was quoting from the Koran. But why should Obama take responsibility for anything?
There is really nothing to say . . . they believe what they want, even in the face of evidence to the contrary. It's just insane.
As a person who in callow youth knew a few people who gilded the lily from time to time, I can surmise: Ryan has been telling this one for years, and simply repeated it on autopilot as one of many wondrous facts about himself, perhaps interlarded with a few that actually comport with reality. But the casual lies of a politician matter, because to a great extent, in politics the mask molds the face, and if the mask consists of lies, they will emboss the face. "The Face of a Liar" is an apt caption for every one-shot of Ryan we see from here on out, and here's hoping the MSM takes up the theme with the same enthusiasm they did in 2000, when they proceeded to dig and dig and dig and rehearse with enthusiasm every Harvard classmate's real or apocryphal tale of Al Gore selling one as an undergraduate. It was shameful and undeserved; this new target is shameless and deserve the truckloads of opprobrium that are rolling his way.