From the opinion page at Foxnews.com
Paul Ryan's speech in 3 words, by Sally Kohn
(Paul Ryan, above, doing his impersonation of Napolean)
1. Dazzling
At least a quarter of Americans still don’t know who Paul Ryan is, and only about half who know and have an opinion of him view him favorably.
So, Ryan’s primary job was to introduce himself and make himself seem likeable, and he did that well. The personal parts of the speech were very personally delivered, especially the touching parts where Ryan talked about his father and mother and their roles in his life. And at the end of the speech, when Ryan cheered the crowd to its feet, he showed an energy and enthusiasm that’s what voters want in leaders and what Republicans have been desperately lacking in this campaign.
To anyone watching Ryan’s speech who hasn’t been paying much attention to the ins and outs and accusations of the campaign, I suspect Ryan came across as a smart, passionate and all-around nice guy — the sort of guy you can imagine having a friendly chat with while watching your kids play soccer together. And for a lot of voters, what matters isn’t what candidates have done or what they promise to do —it’s personality. On this measure, Mitt Romney has been catastrophically struggling and with his speech, Ryan humanized himself and presumably by extension, the top of the ticket.
2. Deceiving
On the other hand, to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to facts, Ryan’s speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech. On this measure, while it was Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold.
(Ok we have to stop here, and remind you this is on the Fox News website.)
The good news is that the Romney-Ryan campaign has likely created dozens of new jobs among the legions of additional fact checkers that media outlets are rushing to hire to sift through the mountain of cow dung that flowed from Ryan’s mouth. Said fact checkers have already condemned certain arguments that Ryan still irresponsibly repeated.
Fact: While Ryan tried to pin the downgrade of the United States’ credit rating on spending under President Obama, the credit rating was actually downgraded because Republicans threatened not to raise the debt ceiling.
Fact: While Ryan blamed President Obama for the shut down of a GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, the plant was actually closed under President George W. Bush. Ryan actually asked for federal spending to save the plant, while Romney has criticized the auto industry bailout that President Obama ultimately enacted to prevent other plants from closing.
Fact: Though Ryan insisted that President Obama wants to give all the credit for private sector success to government, that isn't what the president said. Period.
Fact: Though Paul Ryan accused President Obama of taking $716 billion out of Medicare, the fact is that that amount was savings in Medicare reimbursement rates (which, incidentally, save Medicare recipients out-of-pocket costs, too) and Ryan himself embraced these savings in his budget plan
.
Elections should be about competing based on your record in the past and your vision for the future, not competing to see who can get away with the most lies and distortions without voters noticing or bother to care. Both parties should hold themselves to that standard. Republicans should be ashamed that there was even one misrepresentation in Ryan’s speech but sadly, there were many.
3. Distracting
And then there’s what Ryan didn’t talk about.
Ryan didn’t mention his extremist stance on banning all abortions
with no exception for rape or incest, a stance that is out of touch with
75% of American voters.
Ryan didn’t mention his previous plan to hand over Social Security to Wall Street.
Ryan didn’t mention his numerous votes to raise spending and balloon the deficit when George W. Bush was president.
Ryan didn’t mention how his budget would eviscerate programs that
help the poor and raise taxes on 95% of Americans in order to cut taxes
for millionaires and billionaires even further and increase — yes, increase —the deficit.
These aspects of Ryan’s resume and ideology are sticky to say the least. He would have been wise to tackle them head on and try and explain them away in his first real introduction to voters. But instead of Ryan airing his own dirty laundry, Democrats will get the chance.
At the end of his speech, Ryan quoted his dad, who used to say to him, “"Son. You have a choice: You can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution."
Ryan may have helped solve some of the likeability problems facing Romney, but ultimately by trying to deceive voters about basic facts and trying to distract voters from his own record, Ryan’s speech caused a much larger problem for himself and his running mate.
Sally Kohn is a Fox News contributor and writer. You can find her online at http://sallykohn.com or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sallykohn
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/30/paul-ryans-speech-in-three-words/#ixzz255kcjJBB
This is an Open Thread
sally kohn: radical extremist lesbian
Posted by: donnydo | August 30, 2012 at 09:33 PM
The great thing about Ryan’s balls out cock-and-bull story… his ball will be loped off.
Posted by: BlackRhino | August 30, 2012 at 10:07 PM
Just because Sally Kohn is on Fox, does not make what she said fact - seems to be the meme, to trap those who aren't liberal progs.
The fact checkers claims were shown to be largely bogus and beside the point if nothing else. These fact-checkers need to be fact checked. She seems to protest too loudly about the pro-life canard. She forgot to talk about Todd Akin too. Lesbian extremist ? Hmmm....
Posted by: Radical Moderate | August 30, 2012 at 10:40 PM
At least the fact checkers have sources. Do you? If so, then post them. If not, then you are what you criticize, right?
Posted by: BlackRhino | August 30, 2012 at 10:44 PM
"sally kohn: radical extremist lesbian"
Cant... tell... if... it's...
WorldNetDaily or The Onion Headline.
Posted by: Mercifurious | August 31, 2012 at 06:27 AM
At least the fact checkers have sources. Do you? If so, then post them. If not, then you are what you criticize, right?
Posted by: BlackRhino | August 30, 2012 at 10:44 PM
I happened to watch the speech and their claims and other corroborating claims against their so-called fact check are false. Therefore, I am correct to criticize. Stop making assumptions.
Posted by: Radical moderate | August 31, 2012 at 11:59 AM
The reality is Obama has been a failure as President and must be replaced. We are likely going to have a Romney Presidentcy for the next four years. This may be less than ideal but can be nothing short of an improvement over the current cast of clowns in the White House. At least Romney has a proven record of success to stand up to the Obama proven record of failure.
Sally Kohn is nothing more than another wagging tongue blathering away. Her oppinion has no more value than that of PeeWee Herman.
Posted by: A New Day | August 31, 2012 at 12:14 PM
The fact checkers claims were shown to be largely bogus and beside the point
And who fact-checked the fact checkers? Pray tell, please don't say "It was I."
Radical moderate . . . you're sounding a bit like our very own KS. You might want to . . . well, watch that.
Posted by: T-S | August 31, 2012 at 03:42 PM
BTW, does anyone else love Jon Stewarts Road to Jeb Bush 2016 campaign? Hahahaha.
Posted by: T-S | August 31, 2012 at 03:44 PM
Radical moderate;
I don’t care if you watched the TV program, featuring a former cowboy talking to a chair. What I’m asking is, what are you reading that makes you believe the above article is wrong? Please supply the pertinent links… if you can.
And I’m ready to cut you some slack given that this piece came from the Fox division of reality.
Posted by: BlackRhino | August 31, 2012 at 04:26 PM
A New Day- finally a voice of reason and common sense to add support to myself and KS and a few others, who do daily battle here with T-S and her fellow Obama koolaiders, as they stubbornly and doggedly support their man until the bitter end, which, thankfully will arrive for them on the first Tuesday in November.
Posted by: Hedge Fund Hal (edited by Esmerelda H.) | August 31, 2012 at 04:34 PM
You are one to talk, BR. You watched the same program with leftwing biased commentary - i watched PBS, FYI.
Try looking at yourself in the mirror and explain reality after your constant diet of CNN and MSNBC. Give us normal folks a break !
Posted by: Radical moderate | August 31, 2012 at 04:34 PM
Come on KS, just answer the question. Or is this your confession to a lack of facts?
Posted by: BlackRhino | August 31, 2012 at 04:42 PM
BR - You have nothing else except your echo chamber assertions.
Check out watchdog.org for the actual facts not the opinion of some hack writing an opinion for Fact check or PolitiFact. I doubt that you would show enough initiative to do that, but if you do, I'll be back.
Posted by: KS | August 31, 2012 at 05:55 PM
Because Clint talked to invisible Obama? Well you had better alert the Rmoney campaign.
“Not me,” said an exasperated-looking senior adviser, when asked who was responsible for Mr. Eastwood’s speech. In late-night interviews, aides variously called the speech “strange” and “weird.” One described it as “theater of the absurd.”
Posted by: BlackRhino | August 31, 2012 at 06:01 PM
Tt's the job of senior advisors to run around looking exasperated. Romney was sitting backstage laughing his ass off, according to those who were there. bwahahahaaahaaha The convention was a smashing success and Eastwood's speech was more popular than any other speech given there. Even CNN's Dem oversampled poll has Romney coming out of the convention with a two point lead. That means the real lead by Romney is around 5 to 7 points.
Posted by: Hedge Fund Hal (edited by Esmerelda H.) | August 31, 2012 at 06:29 PM
Voter suppression laws have been overturned in Florida, Texas (voter ID and redistricting) and today - Ohio. Glad there are still some honest judges out there!
Posted by: sparky | August 31, 2012 at 06:29 PM
OK KS, I understand where your coming from. Watchdog.org is a right wing front. They tried to bury their connections but as you always say, ‘follow the money’. So if you click on the donate tab on their home page, it takes you to this page.
Look at the bottom of the page, where it says contact us.
That address is the same address as this ghost of Breitbart website.
So, I kinda know of the type of facts you support.
Posted by: BlackRhino | August 31, 2012 at 06:32 PM
Ok Thomas, hey you need to pay poor Esmerelda more. She seems to be falling down on the job.
Posted by: BlackRhino | August 31, 2012 at 06:35 PM
Hey BR - You support Fact Check and Politifact which are left wing fronts. I like truthorfiction.org as a truly non-partisan site.
You can choose to go back and forth ad nauseum about what the definition of is is but I don't have time for that bullcrap.
It boils down to the truth lies somewhere in between Politifact and watchdog.org or at truthorfiction.org (if its covered). Meanwhile I'll view it as you and your ilk continue to circle the drain.
Posted by: KS | August 31, 2012 at 06:41 PM
Voter suppression laws have been overturned in Florida, Texas (voter ID and redistricting) and today - Ohio. Glad there are still some honest judges out there!
Posted by: sparky | August 31, 2012 at 06:29 PM
Let us know why you support judicial anarchy and encourage voter fraud. Inquiring minds would like to know.
Posted by: KS | August 31, 2012 at 06:53 PM
Bill Maher is interviewing Mr. D'Sousa and is succeeding in making him sound like a 3rd grader...HAH....
Posted by: sparky | August 31, 2012 at 07:18 PM
KS, plain fact is this lady has fact to support what she wrote, and you can’t sustain your assertions. And if you could you would, but you are reduced to calling her a “Lesbian extremist”. That’s what you do KS, when you can’t defend your ideological beliefs you name call.
Posted by: BlackRhino | August 31, 2012 at 07:46 PM
Let us know why you support judicial anarchy and encourage voter fraud. Inquiring minds would like to know.
Posted by: KS | August 31, 2012 at 06:53 PM
Voter suppression was overturned in Ohio this week when a federal judge ruled that making weekend voting illegal wasn't illegal. What part of the bill of rights are you tea partiers against?
Posted by: Preston | August 31, 2012 at 08:36 PM
During his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention, Mitt Romney repeatedly asked the crowd if they were better off today than they were 4 years ago.
Obama didn't become president until January 20, 2009, so 4 years ago, in August of 2008, President Bush was in charge and the fiscal meltdown was his baby. Romney couldn't even get the dates right let alone the facts.
Posted by: Preston | August 31, 2012 at 09:16 PM
Goodness, it’s no wonder their followers lie.
Posted by: Gentlemen Rouge | August 31, 2012 at 10:07 PM
Preston - you are splitting hairs - he was technically correct even though Bush was Prez and he will be correct in Jan. 2013. those who live in glass houses best not throw stones - Obama can't even tell us how many states he visited in 2008 and failed to correct it.
More about watchdog.org. This has nothing to do with Breitbart. Beats the hell out of fact-checker (leftwing opining)
"Watchdog.org is a collection of independent journalists covering state-specific and local government activity. The program began in September 2009, a project of Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to promoting new media journalism.
Our established investigative journalists and capitol news reporters across the country are doing what legacy journalism outlets prove unable to do: share information, dive deep into investigations, and provide the fourth estate that has begun to fade in recent decades. By enhancing communication between reporters and providing a forum for published journalism, Watchdog.org promotes a vibrant, well-informed electorate and a more transparent government.
Watchdog.org utilizes a state-specific approach, in order to provide readers with information that is of proximate and practical interest. Interested parties can contact [email protected] for more information."
Posted by: KS | August 31, 2012 at 11:10 PM
KS, plain fact is this lady has fact to support what she wrote, and you can’t sustain your assertions. And if you could you would, but you are reduced to calling her a “Lesbian extremist”. That’s what you do KS, when you can’t defend your ideological beliefs you name call.
Posted by: BlackRhino | August 31, 2012 at 07:46 PM
You don't read very well, do you ? The arguments are flimsy at best and make you look foolish, just like she is. Go ahead, try defending it in your own words.
Posted by: KS | August 31, 2012 at 11:13 PM
Nah, you make a great case for those of us who believe ignorance is a pitiful pursuit.
Posted by: BlackRhino | August 31, 2012 at 11:30 PM
The recession started in 2007, 750k jobs being shed each month, can't get any more technical than that.
Posted by: Preston | August 31, 2012 at 11:56 PM
Come on Preston, that’s called facts. We can’t have those interfere with ideology.
Posted by: BlackRhino | September 01, 2012 at 12:10 AM
KS- this is all they have. Asinine, persnickety pettifoggery over your four year time frame, like some "worker ant" Federal government bureacrats sending you a tax bill for 38 cents, and Seamus the Dog. Truly pitiful.
Posted by: Hedge Fund Hal (edited by Esmerelda H.) | September 01, 2012 at 08:32 AM
Rumor has it, from reliable sources, iis that due to the rousing, crushing success of Eastwood, Romney and Ryan, during and after their speeches to the convention, and big shifts not in their favor in the polls, Team Obama has changed strategies. Campaign Obama 2012 will now be almost totally focused on Seamus the Dog, and what that summer road trip means regarding Mitt's fitness for the Presidency. Team Obama investigators are said to be scouring the length of the 1980's era summer road trip's route, as we speak, lookign for retired gas station attendants, and rest stop lstrine clesners, for evidence of Seamus'es fright , trauma and mistreatment in regards to his ride in the rooftop box. The new Devo songs "Don't Roofrack Me Bro," and "Seamus, We Need you", released by the temporarily re-formed 80's band specifically to help Obama, have been ordered to be the only songs played in his campaign commercials or at his public campaign speaking events.
Posted by: Hedge Fund Hal (edited by Esmerelda H.) | September 01, 2012 at 09:08 AM
rest stop latrine cleaners......sorry...I checked Esmerelda's work and gave her a stern admonishment , after I found this.....she can and will do better.......
Posted by: Hedge Fund Hal (edited by Esmerelda H.) | September 01, 2012 at 09:15 AM
This speaks to the lack of credibility of the fact checkers that some of you choose to hang your hat on. How does a crap sandwich taste, BR ?
(Source: Weekly Standard)
If you want a near perfect encapsulation of how the Obama campaign is leaning on incompetent partisans masquerading as "independent" media fact checking organizations to do their dirty work, I strongly encourage you to read today's article in the New York Times, "Obama Team Sharpens Attacks on Rivals’ Character." While the article is a far too credulous regarding the fact checker response to Paul Ryan's speech, it does contain this gem:
From PolitiFact to PolitiFiction
No, Reagan Was Not Too Liberal for Today's GOP
Mr. Obama this week, for the first time, entered the fray. Campaigning on Tuesday on college campuses in Iowa and Colorado, he told thousands of supporters not to believe the opposition’s attacks because, “how do I put this nicely? They will just fib.” On Wednesday in Charlottesville, Va., he ramped up his complaint, winning applause from the estimated 6,500 people.
“Sometimes they just make things up. But they’ve got a bunch of folks who can write $10 million checks, and they’ll just keep on running them,” he said. “I mean, somebody was challenging one of their ads — they made it up — about work and welfare. And every outlet said this is just not true. And they were asked about it and they said — one of their campaign people said, ‘We won’t have the fact-checkers dictate our campaign. We will not let the truth get in the way.’”
Mr. Obama was referring, as many other critics of the Romney campaign have, to a comment that its pollster, Neil Newhouse, made to reporters at the Republican convention on Tuesday, dismissive of those faulting the campaign’s television ads. What Mr. Newhouse actually said was, “These fact-checkers come to those ads with their own sets of thoughts and beliefs. We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.”
Mr. Newhouse did not say, “We will not let the truth get in the way.”
Emphasis added. According to the New York Times, the president appears to be lying in the process of accusing the Romney campaign of lying. It will be interesting to see if media fact checkers attempt to spin this statement."
Posted by: KS | September 01, 2012 at 06:35 PM
A sign of desperation, KS. Making sentences up out of whole cloth- a disgrace, but more importantly a desperate candidate who has determined he must run through the gutter to have a chance at victory. This will not help him however, and he still will lose. Being dissed by Clint on Thursday night, in the disrespectful manner that he was, was the real turning point here. You've just been dissed by an American icon, senor.
Posted by: Hedge Fund Hal (edited by Esmerelda H.) | September 01, 2012 at 09:52 PM
KS, what she wrote is true; there is nothing you can write to disprove Paul Ryan is a bald face lier. In the last 24 hours he had to admit to another one of his lies. Paul Ryan admits he hasn’t run a sub-three-hour marathon
The crap sandwiches haven’t been dealt Putz, are you suggesting we concur to the stake?
Posted by: BlackRhino | September 01, 2012 at 10:32 PM
BR - Excuse you, but Paul Ryan has corrected his mistatement and said it was 4 hours instead of 3 hours, so go suck on a lemon or finish eating your crap sandwich.
LMAO - He just disproved your claim as he had enough integrity to own up to it, unlike your president who keep peddling his crap for those who like to eat his crap sandwiches and seldom corrects himself even if he is confronted or caught. Doubling down has taken on a life of its own since he came onto the scene.
Now, a message from your "friends" at the major media outlets, short on character and long on prevarication;
"Mainstream Media: But you Americans should be watching what Obama does, not what he says...er...oh, wait, that's awful too.
Well, maybe you bunch of hicks should just avert your collective gaze and hope for the best.
And why the hell are you bitter-clingers still stocking up on ammo?
Please, remain calm, and vote for Obama, all is well! ALL IS WELL! and if you don't, then F**k you.
Thank you for your time.
We hate you.
The Media"
Posted by: KS | September 01, 2012 at 10:41 PM
Sorry for providing the truth. Didn’t mean to expose you to the world of realism. Take a breath and find those little red pills. You’ll be ok.
Posted by: BlackRhino | September 01, 2012 at 11:01 PM
KS is like a little rat on a wheel, trying to run as fast as he can to spin the lie.
Posted by: nameless | September 02, 2012 at 04:24 AM
What truth ? I expose an inconvenient truth to correct your meme about Ryan and you show that you prefer spilling blood to truth. You taking those little blue pills ? You and nameless are typical reactionaries - so predictable...
Anyone with the handle of nameless is real profile in courage - you can be secure in your little cocoon behind the screen and as a small person.
Posted by: KS | September 02, 2012 at 02:01 PM
Where is my huckleberry Hal, where is the bounce Hal?
Posted by: Gentlemen Rouge | September 03, 2012 at 07:54 PM
Savage is watching the Dem convention- featured appearances include a fake woman general, who sued her way to the top, angry black man Newark mayor Corey Booker, rainbow flag wavers out on the floor, etc.....extremists....out of touch with mainstrem America..... no reachout to the white middle class....Savage is concluding that those white males, primarily, and, to a lesser extent white females, who voted for Obama last time, will not come back to him in 2012......in addition, his base is crumbling, and while they will probably not vote for Romney, many of them will stay home. He predicts if the vote were held today Romney would win by eight points. I agree. He is aware , as I am, that most of the national polls are terribly biased, with huge oversampling in favor of Dems.Now even the ABC/Washington Post poll (leftwing poll) says Obama now has trouble among women voters .
Posted by: Hedge Fund Hal (edited by Esmerelda H.) | September 04, 2012 at 07:16 PM
I'm one of Harry Reid's "seventeen angry old white men", Johnson. My personal financial contribution to Mitt Romney's campaign was over seven figures.
Posted by: Hedge Fund Hal (edited by Esmerelda H.) | September 04, 2012 at 07:20 PM
Romney received a 6 point bounce in the swing states, but you don't have to believe that. Just keep looking at the registered voter polls, which showed no bounce while the likely voter polls (a much better indicator) showed the bounce.
I also see Obama's approval rating with women is in negative territory for the first time.
Keep siding with Elizabeth (Fauxohontas) Warren and the shrill shrieking shrews and the extremists dressed in moderate clothing as Democrats at the DNC.
Posted by: KS | September 04, 2012 at 09:50 PM
What polls are you speaking of KS? Are these top secret or are we privy to the information?
Posted by: BlackRhino | September 04, 2012 at 10:53 PM
I’m hoping it’s not RASMUSSEN.
Posted by: BlackRhino | September 04, 2012 at 11:01 PM
Eastwood's speech was more popular than any other speech given there.
That Hal would actually admit to this is proof positive his side is in deep, deep trouble. An eighty year old man talking to a chair is the best his side can muster?
HAHAHA! HA HAA HA HA HAAAA! Best laugh of the day.
Posted by: T-S | September 05, 2012 at 05:52 PM
KS, I know I'm going to regret this but since when is owning up to something" disproving it?
exposed an inconvenient truth? What you posted sounds more like schizophrenic gobbly-gook. Go back and read it. KS, you've reached the point where you are the best evidence I've seen for reelecting Barack Obama. You - and your side - has gone off the deep end.
Posted by: T-S | September 05, 2012 at 05:59 PM