David Brooks, in conversation with Gail Collins, explains that all that lying was really not Paul Ryan's fault:
DAVID It was weird. Part of the speech was compelling and sounded very much like Paul Ryan -- the indictment of the stimulus package and Obamacare. Part of it sounded like it was written by people with the intellectual moorings of jellyfish.In case you don't understand, when Brooks says Ryan is "a guy famous for truth-telling," what he means is: Ryan is a guy famous for telling people in a much lower tax bracket than mine that they have to suffer.
The stuff about the G.M. plant was stupid on many levels. Ryan voted for the auto bailout; the plant in his hometown was closed pre-Obama; an elemental fact of capitalism is that sometimes corporations close plants and are right to do so. If you’ve got a guy famous for truth-telling, why feed him a bunch of semi-deceptions?
The Simpson-Bowles section was more of the same. I've interviewed Ryan many times and I've never heard him utter sentiments remotely like that. He doesn't believe in their approach because he doesn't believe it fixes the Medicare problem. Yet there he was in the biggest speech of his life pretending he thought it was God's gift to policy making. Paul, sometimes you just have to put your foot down and tell the campaign you won't do it.
Brooks has read a lot of sociology since his undergrad days, and he actually thinks this qualifies him as an expert on how people tick, but he's a godawful judge of human character. Confronted with this go-getter, this man on the make -- a guy he's actually spoken to on multiple occasions -- Brooks is completely oblivious the hustle, the striving, the self-branding (Paul Ryan, Teller of Hard Truths®). He just gets gulled like the dumbest mark at the carny. Brooks can't imagine that Ryan, left to his own devices, would say something dishonest now in pursuit of professional advantage because it's literally never occurred to Brooks that -- in a world full of Randian right-wing billionaires bearing bulging checkbooks -- Ryan might have said and done a lot of dishonest things throughout his career in pursuit of professional advantage. He says he's a Truth-Teller®, so he really must be one!
Pathetic.
When you have nothing to run on - or, at least nothing you can admit - then you have to lie.
ReplyDeleteAs for telling the truth about their future policies - well, "The truth shall set you free" - free, and going home in November, the losers of one of the most lopsided defeats in Presidential history.
So, you then no option BUT to lie!
And you have to sell those lies as hard as you can - after all, they're all you've got.
And Ryan's no great believer in veracity, and never has been, so this speech at the convention was no great stretch.
And if Brooks thinks Ryan just started lying, then that says how little Bobo knows about human nature - which I doubt - since he's not a fool.
Now, let's take Mr. Brooks - I bet Mr. Brooks thinks he's an honest man.
But, let's say he has 3 double-martini's at his next dinner with some other political pundit. And some cognac afterwards, and a nice port.
And let's say he gets stopped by police on his way home from dinner.
Now, when the cop asks him if he's been drinking, Bobo being no fool, he might very well admit it, because the cop might be able to smell the alcohol on his breath.
But does Brooks expect me to believe, if he's then asked how many drinks he's had, he's going to tell him the truth, and say, "I had 3 double-maritini's, officer, some cognac and some port"?
BUSTED!!!
"Step out of the car, Sir..."
Or is he going to lie to try to get out of the DWI, and say, "Just one beer, officer"?
Ah, he MIGHT be able to get away with that!
It's worth a shot, anyway.
Hey, you are, where you are, so why not try?
Now, maybe Bobo's the worlds only true Boy Scout, and tell the cop the truth. But I doubt it.
Brooks would do what anyone who made the stupid decision to drink too much and drive does - which is TO LIE!
Ryan's lyin' to win.
Ryan's has built his entire career by lying.
A more recent example than even his speech on Wednesday, was him telling a radio talk show host a few days later, that he ran a sub-3 hour marathon.
Jayzoos H. Christ in Nike's - does he think no one can check?
Well, someone did. And it turns out the only marathon he ran was about 20 years ago, and it was OVER 4 hours.
If you lie about your time running a marathon, something that's remarkably easily checked - since various running magazines print the results of EVERY feckin' marathon held in the last 3 decades - then how can anyone think he's some great speaker of truths?
Ryan's only 'a truth-teller' to fools, dupes, rubes, suckers, and marks.
Or other liers - and propagandists.
Like, 'Our Mr. Brooks.'
DFB - truth teller?
ReplyDeleteDon't tell this to Driftglass (or me).
We've been tracking his resume-building lies for years.
And he knows exactly who and what Ryan is.
They're all in the "in" crowd.
And we're not.
Thanks for your reporting!
S
Steve: I'm stealing this comment from a Balloon Juice thread because I think it's relevant to discussions of Ryan.
ReplyDeletedewzke Says:
http://oneteachersperspective......an-me.html
This is a comparison by someone roughly the same age as Paul Ryan who grew up in Janesville with a quite similar background to Ryan who came to an opposite view
of the helping hand government and public services provide. It is well written with informed source citations. It describes their similarities —- strong Catholic upbringings, the death of their fathers -— and their differences -— wealth and poverty, private schools and public schools. I [dewkze} found the blog referenced on the WEAC Facebook page.
I had the distinct impression that Ryan had told both those lies before (blaming Obama for the GM plant, and decrying his failure to push to get the Bowles-Simpson plan enacted.
ReplyDeleteIf so, does that make Bobo a liar? Or just dumber and more misinformed than ever?
Hell, as far as I'm concerned, all one needs to know about Ryan is that he was voted "biggest brown-noser" in high school. Call me shallow, but I think his course was set then, & his peers nailed it. And as we all know, proficient brown-nosers rely on, among other things, an ability to lie convincingly.
ReplyDeleteI assume pasthetic means beyond pathetic. Agreed.
ReplyDeleteYes it does, Danp. That's embarrassing -- fixed now.
ReplyDeleteBobo is being even more of a clueless twit than usual. "My friend Paul Ryan doesn't lie - his speech writers are putting words in his mouth."
ReplyDelete