WE NEED A STRONGER WORD THAN "LIES"

It’s full of lies, but NYT reporters call it terrific. This is how nations fall. RT @johnjharwood: Ryan's giving terrific speech.

— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) August 30, 2012

I'm on Twitter and I'm seeing a lot of references to Paul Ryan's "dishonesty" and "lies." I'm sorry -- "lies" is too weak a word for some of the things Ryan said. We need a stronger word to describe the ability to look you in the eye -- look America in the eye -- and argue the exact opposite of your most deeply held beliefs, and do so in such a sincere-seeming way that it's not even clear you actually grasp your own dishonesty.

For instance:

And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly.

You see, even with all the hidden taxes to pay for the health care takeover, even with new taxes on nearly a million small businesses, the planners in Washington still didn't have enough money. They needed more. They needed hundreds of billions more. So, they just took it all away from Medicare. Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama. An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed, all to pay for a new entitlement we didn't even ask for. The greatest threat to Medicare is Obamacare, and we're going to stop it.

Which suggests, of course, that Ryan is opposed to the comparable cuts in his own original budget. And he talks as if he really believes he's not itching to gut the Medicare guarantee.

And:

[President Obama] created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.

Yes, because (for better or worse) you blocked a grand bargain, Paul.

And:

We have responsibilities, one to another -- we do not each face the world alone. And the greatest of all responsibilities, is that of the strong to protect the weak. The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves.

The man who utters these pretty words is, in fact, a stone-cold Randian. Enough said.

These aren't just lies. These are the pronouncements of a sociopath, someone who knows what he stands for and knows precisely why it shocks the senses, and persuades you that he believes the exact opposite, and maybe even persuades himself.

I just hope he doesn't persuade America. But he did a much better job than I expected him to. I think the sick bastard may have won some votes.