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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan addresses the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012.
By Anjeanette Damon (contact) 
Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012 | 2 a.m.
On the opening day of their national convention, Republicans genuflected before the private sector, praising the ingenuity and leadership skills of the country’s business men and women — the skills Republicans believe make Mitt Romney presidential material.
But Wednesday, they turned to a man who has spent almost his entire career in Washington, aiming to be the one to dismantle the policies of President Barack Obama’s administration and replace them with conservative principles aimed at fixing the economy.
For many Republicans, it isn’t difficult for them to reconcile their general antipathy for so-called “career politicians” with their enthusiastic support of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.
Ryan is the man with the intellectual chops and economic policy heft to complement Romney’s business background, they say.
“Mitt Romney is the businessman who can do everything that needs to be done,” said Wes Rice, a delegate from Douglas County. “Paul Ryan is someone who is the financial expert who’s needed to undo what’s been done. He’s an idea guy. He’s a good conservative.
“Some might view Mitt Romney as middle of the road, and Paul Ryan can energize the conservative base.”
The fact that Ryan has been in Congress since age 28 also gives him the insider status to help Romney push his agenda, Rice argued.
“He needs someone who’s been in the backroom, who knows where the deals are made, who knows Capitol Hill,” Rice said.
Indeed, where Romney’s broad policy platforms have yet to be fleshed out in significant detail, Ryan’s proposals — particularly his budget plan — have already been marked up as legislation that’s been vetted by the Congressional Budget Office.
In his speech to the Republican National Convention, Ryan sought not only to demonstrate his policy adroitness, but to put it up as an alternative to what he described as Obama’s empty rhetoric.
“The present administration has made its choices,” Ryan said. “And Mitt Romney and I have made ours: Before the math and the momentum overwhelm us all, we are going to solve this nation’s economic problems.
“And I’m going to level with you: We don’t have that much time. But if we are serious, and smart, and we lead, we can do this.”
But Ryan’s appeal to Republicans goes beyond his policy bona fides, according to delegates in Tampa.
Nevada delegate Kim Bacchus, who grew up in Wisconsin, was effusive in her praise of Ryan.
“Paul Ryan is the salt of the earth,” she said. “He was taught the basics of hard work, that you have to earn your way through everything. In Wisconsin, that’s how I grew up. He knows you work hard enough, you keep your nose clean, you go to church, you give generously to your community and you will succeed.
“He’s an amazing example of the future of the Republican Party.”
And if the brains, the conservative cred and the midwestern upbringing aren’t enough, Ryan’s got one more thing going for him.
At least as far as Serena Goldstock of Las Vegas is concerned: “He’s hot as heck in person.”
Ryan's speech will be considered an "A" by those who do not care for the facts. $716B falsehood well documented, mother rides on public bus to go to public school, GM plant closed in December 2008 (not on Obama's watch), Ryan walked out on Simpson-Bowles, Ryan voted for TARP, Ryan asked for stimulus funds for his constituents, etc.
Lying to American people to make them vote against their own interest.
Disgusting!!!
Paul Ryan was dead on last night
Starting with the failure by Obama-Biden to unchain the Amaerican economy with is growing at 1.7% of GDP. The crony stimulus failed
Obama-Biden has failed to let people go back to work with 23 million underemployed
Obama-Biden robbing $716 billion from Medicare and raising $600 billion in new taxes to pay for Obamacare
Paul Ryan was clear on the path we need to take. Four more years of failure with Obama or a new day in America with Romney-Ryan is our choice
Ryan is a liar, but he has lots of money from super-pacs to prop-up his lies. Of course Gingrich said Romney was a liar.
Ryan got it right. America needs to know.
Obama-Biden lied about the squandered Stimulus. Spend on Union bosses and bankrupt green companies
Obama-Biden lied about Obamacare have no impact on your current insurance whether Medicare or private. Stole 716 billion dollar and tried to spend it twice
Obama-Biden lied about energy independence. Still dependent on foreign sources and we sell our coal to China
Obama-Biden lied about Dodd-Frank fixing the finacial system. Small business can not borrow money
Democrats and Republicans will both have a chance to air the talking points and issues during the Vice Presidential debate on October 11th. Democrats will need a pinch hitter and a miracle that day.
We were treated last night to a very virtuoso performance from the greatest BS artist in politics today, one Paul Ryan. Think of a young, crooked Nixon channeling the theories of Ayn Rand, putting it through the sausage grinder of Orwell's worst fears, and delivering it with the smirking assurance of a Baghdad Bob. "Obama closed a GM plant in Janesville", he snarled, not mentioning that the time-traveling plant had shuttered before Barack Obama ever entered the White House. The stimulus was nothing but "political patronage" and "cronyism", he squawked, not mentioning the letters he himself sent requesting those very same stimulus dollars be steered towards his district--letters specifically heralding the stimulative effects they would have. He decried Obama's cruel cuts to Medicare, not mentioning his very own budgetary support of the precise same Medicare changes, and certainly not mentioning his plan to end the program entirely in favor of (partially) subsidized private insurance. He hammered Obama for not supporting the "bipartisan deficit commission", but did not mention that it was Paul Ryan, who served on it, who helped botch the thing so badly that the "commission" could not even reach a conclusion to be supported--because Paul Ryan, among other commission members, would not vote to support it. Paul Ryan also only discovered the deficit after a certain Barack Obama was elected president; before then, he was a reliable vote for whatever Bush-era budget busters happened to be on the table, including, yes, the wars. And the tax cuts.
It is hard to choose the worst lie, given all that, but I think blaming Barack Obama for the downgrading of the United States credit, after the last disastrous round of GOP debt-ceiling hostage taking, may be worthy of the prize. After all, it was the Paul Ryan contingent of the House that demanded the crisis in the first place, and it was the Paul Ryan contingent of the House that the credit rating agency S&P specifically identified as the most substantive threat to the future credit of the United States. In exchange for this round of hostage-taking, it should be pointed out, the Republicans received yet another blue-ribbon panel on debt reduction, which failed entirely, and something called a sequester, a promise that if the United States could not work out a way to bring its budget into line with what the Republicans demanded, the entire budget would be slashed by a certain amount in order to forcibly meet that pointless, arbitrary number. Paul Ryan deplored that, too, in his speech. Paul Ryan also voted for it.
It has become a bit of a parlor game to try to guess which of the current crop of blustering politicians are truly evil, and which are merely stupid. With Paul Ryan, though, there is no particular doubt. Paul Ryan is very smart, and Paul Ryan sells his vapid, Randian premises with enough raw horsepoop and hucksterism to make even the most crooked car salesman in the country blush.
Welcome to the newest incarnation of Republicanism. If it looks a lot like the last version with a new face plastered on it, congratulations; you're catching on.
The patron saint of Aynrandistan couldn't stop lying last night.
While he moralized about the deficit and debt, he failed to take responsibility for being a blank check for debt-financed entitlement expansion, debt-financed wars and debt-financed tax cuts when he couldn't say no to the Bush administration.
When he talked about the debt loaded on his children and his children's children, he failed to take responsibility for the TRILLIONS in debt he voted for.
His attacks were a master class in hypocrisy, attacking Obama for not embracing the debt commission that Ryan himself voted against.
Low-information voters obviously gobbled that speech up. Those of us who know his record saw right through his desperate and hypocritical attacks.
I wonder what it would have taken for Nevada Republicans to decide Ryan WASN'T the perfect complement to Mittens Romney?
In other words such a clumsy and obvious attempt at manipulation of the masses should have been rejected as unfit to even print by a RESPONSIBLE press. Too bad we don't have such a thing.
Here is the "guaranteeing and promises" that then candidate Obama made in Janesville. Note the date, and note the tone in comparison to last nights speech by one of the 3 scrooges (Chisti as Curly, Ryan as Larry, and Romney as Moe).
"OBAMA: And I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another hundred years. The question is not whether a clean energy economy is in our future, it's where it will thrive. I want it to thrive "
Candidate Obama, February 13, 2008, Janesville, Wisconsin"
Obamacare, one of the largest tax increases on the middle income class and stumbling blocks on small business in American history. The 2007-2008 democrat presidential campaign and the juveniles in the media is what brought down the economy. Yep, Caribou Barbie's fault last time, Paul Ryan's now. Good Grief.
The Party of Puritans has been naughty lately. Like wanton liberals whose morals they loathe, the Republican's have been pushing the sex angle. We've seen a shirtless Ryan, heard too much talk about how "hot" he is and, in a creepy interview on cable, the un-witch Christine O'Donnell claimed that all that stroking from Ann Romney was bound to elevate Mitt's mood and result in a robustly romantic evening for the lovebirds. Beefcake and nooky -- go figure.
Apart from the stream of belligerence and untruths that poured from Paul Ryan, it was impossible not to notice that he kept rolling his tongue around in his cheeks and sucking his teeth after he delivered each line. But that was not nearly as distracting as the grunting that followed every sentence. Oh my, that was strange.
JeffFromVegas writes, ""Obama closed a GM plant in Janesville", he snarled, not mentioning that the time-traveling plant had shuttered before Barack Obama ever entered the White House."
Ryan never said that Obama closed the plant. In fact, he never even said that Obama broke a promise to keep the plant open.
What he said was the following:
"President Barack Obama came to office during an economic crisis, as he has reminded us a time or two. Those were very tough days, and any fair measure of his record has to take that into account. My home state voted for President Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory.
"A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: "I believe that if our government is there to support you " this plant will be here for another hundred years." That's what he said in 2008.
"Well, as it turned out, that plant didn't last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that's how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.
It is clear that Ryan never said that Obama closed the plant, and even indicated that the plant was already scheduled to close when he said, "... where we were about to lose a major factory".
Ryan was saying that Obama promised a recovery that hasn't happened.
Ryan's statement also strongly implied that if Obama indeed made an effort to re-open the plant, he failed.
Paul Ryan apologists may want to believe otherwise, but even Fox News admits how dishonest Paul Ryan was last night:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/3...
"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."
Kevin Sandoval writes, "Paul Ryan apologists may want to believe otherwise, but even Fox News admits how dishonest Paul Ryan was last night ..."
While that piece is published on the Fox News site, it is in the opinion section, and was written by Sally Kohn, a Fox News contributor who was hired to present the view of the far left (I believe that she is to the left of Juan Williams, and may be in Bob Beckel territory).
It is a testament to the balance of FNC that they have a fairly large stable of left-wing contributors on the payroll and give them free access to the opinion section of the site, despite how wrong they often are.
Reno Dave:
Welcome to the LV Sun commenting boards.
If you think that Paul Ryan didn't claim that President Obama made a PROMISE that he didn't keep to my friends and neighbors from Janesville (I lived in that part of Wisconsin for many years) then it is my fervent hope you are not a teacher of Forensics because your students would know very little regarding the truth.
Welcome aboard.
Bless you and your family.
Comment removed by moderator. Refers to removed comment.
JeffFromVegas,
Thank you for the welcome, but I've been commenting on this site since 2010, though I only made the commitment to become a trusted commenter a few weeks ago.
I provided the entire text of Ryan's speech where he discussed the Janesville plant. Please show me where in Ryan's statement he claimed that Obama made a promise to keep the plant open.
BTW, it didn't slip past me that you shifted your argument from claiming that Ryan said that Obama closed the plant to whether or not Ryan's claim about Obama's promise of economic recovery applied to the economy as a whole, or to only the Janesville plant.
I say that it was the former, and that any statement of Obama's regarding an effort to retool the Janesville plant as so far resulted in failure.
BTW, here is what Obama said in June, 2008 about the imminent closure of the Janesville plant:
"As president, I will lead an effort to retool plants like the GM facility in Janesville so we can build the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow and create good-paying jobs in Wisconsin and all across America."
He may indeed have led an effort to get GM to retool and reopen the Janesville plant, but as the plant remains closed to this day, he obviously failed at that effort.
RenoDave:
"And Mr. Ryan's remarks about the auto plant in Janesville ricocheted around the Internet almost as soon as he uttered them.
He appeared to fault Mr. Obama for the closing of the plant -- a decision made before Mr. Obama was elected, and before his bailout of the auto industry, which was credited with saving a number of other auto plants. He noted in his speech that Mr. Obama had visited the plant in 2008 and told people that "I believe that if our government is there to support you, this plant will be here for another hundred years."
"Well, as it turned out," Mr. Ryan said, "that plant didn't last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day."
As a candidate, Mr. Obama spoke at the Janesville plant in February 2008, a day after General Motors had posted a $38 billion loss. He gave a speech on economic policy. By that October -- a month before the election -- General Motors had already made plans to begin closing the Janesville plant because of the steep falloff in the sale of sport utility vehicles.
An article in The New York Times that October said: "On Oct. 13, G.M. announced that its 90-year-old plant there, the company's oldest factory in the United States, would build its last S.U.V. just before the Christmas holidays." It took some time for the plant to shut down, and some work continued there into Mr. Obama's term in office. But the decision to close the plant had been made earlier -- as can be seen by this June 2008 letter from Mr. Ryan urging G.M. to reconsider."
Further proof Ryan knows he was LYING: (From Paul Ryans OWN website) http://paulryan.house.gov/uploadedfiles/...
JeffFromVegas,
The author of that "fact check" piece wrote, "He appeared to fault Mr. Obama for the closing of the plant ...".
"Appeared" is the operative (weasel) word. Ryan never stated that Obama was responsible for closing the plant. You, Michael Cooper (the author of the NYT piece,) and other "fact checkers" apparently think you all can read Ryan's mind, and discern his true meaning.
I hate to break it to you, but you can't.
Regarding Ryan's supposed lie about the decision to close the plant and the letter indicating he, in your words, "... knows he was LYING", Ryan clearly stated in his speech: "... where we were about to lose a major factory."
He did not say, "Where, UNKNOWN TO US, we were about to lose a major factory.", yet that is how you and Mr. Cooper appear to be interpreting it.
What part of the statement in Ryan's speech doesn't agree with the letter on Ryan's House web site?
Reno_Dave:
It is all there in black and white, if you want to claim otherwise, we have nothing left to talk about.
It is you utilizing extreme legalisms and technical points rather than listening to what Mr. Ryans claims were last night.
People who appear to claim one thing, while knowing its factual underpinnings are unrelated and false are evil.
It is apparent you want to slither through the eye of the needle of a sliver of misleading truth rather than be open and gregarious.
The GM bailout came too late for Janesville. Perhaps if Mr. Ryan had been a better representative to his district, he could have eliminated the Janesville plant from the list of closures.
You know, helped the "guys he went to high school with".
Det Munch, 11:48: Blonde hair (ends in e for male) and blond hair in women? My father carried significant native American dna, he had dark to black hair.--slight grey at temples in his 70's, not bald. His mother never used hair dye and remained very dark haired--into late 90's. Some of my siblings have dark to black hair. I and a sister are blonds, sort of dark blond to light brunette which bleaches out easily. And there is no question that he was my father--no need to explain details here. My mother is brunette although her father was very Nordic blonde.
Ryan is right: we must revive the AMERICAN DREAM for AMERICANS. We must prioritize the needs of our economy and Americans over the wants of whining dependent non-working able-bodied adults and non-Americans.
My question is this: If elected, would Romney take the oath of office on The Book of Mormon instead of The Bible?
iwonder: While I'm no expert on Mormonism, it is rather widespread knowledge that "they" are Christian and believe the Bible is the beginning, not the end. The Book of Mormon is a SEQUEL.
Would Ryan take his oath on "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand?
JeffFromVegas,
Sorry, but it is you who is denying the black and white truths of Ryan's statement about Janesville and interpreting them to suit your agenda.
Regarding your statement that the GM bailout came too late for Janesville, "lateness" is irrelevant.
The GM bailout occurred on or about June 1, 2009. As of that date, President Obama's administration acquired unprecedented ability to control the inner workings of the company, as did the UAW Retiree Trust that controlled nearly 18% of the stock.
Yet the plant remains closed to this day.
Obama apparently failed in his effort to get the plant retooled and reopened "for the next 100 years".
That is the truth.
JeffFromVegas,
One last point:
It was then Candidate Obama who spoke the words in Janesville, WI about retooling and reopening the Janesville plant, and one would think that because he made the statement there, that he would have moved Heaven and Earth to achieve this goal, because then it would have been an example of his success, rather than failure.
But it was apparently just words.
Ironically, he also made the following statement in Wisconsin in early 2008:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgMcht-EW...
Rep. Ryan's speech was deceiving and misleading. I was looking to hear a young congressman be honest with the millions who were watching last night.
Being an independent voter, I have concluded after seeing Ryan and hearing his speech that the Republicans are campaigning on lies.
Romney, on the other hand, is handsome, so are his sons even the gay one.
So Det_Munch please explain your even the gay one comment. Would it be you are stereo typing gay men as being ugly or something.
As a Lib you open mouth insert foot.
The rhetorical bankruptcy of the GOP on display for all to see.
On the one hand, they claim the government cannot create jobs, nor help industry. Government needs to "know it's place" and "get out of the way." It can't "pick winners and losers."
On the other, they say that the government didn't do enough to save a plant which was ordered closed under the Bush administration.
One one hand they lambaste the Obama administration for "controlling" and "taking over" a private company. They attack when Obama "fired" Fritz Henderson.
On the other: why didn't they do anything to control the company?
On the one hand they claim that bailouts and stimulus promote failure, destroy our country with more debt, and are morally wrong.
On the other, they vote for bailouts and write demands for stimulus cash, like Paul Ryan.
Cognitive dissonance or attack without regard to consistency? Either way: damned if you do, damned if you don't.
All this from the party whose convention is built upon an out-of-context quote.
Reno_Dave:
Where is Ryan's letter to Obama asking him (As you say -- the shadow CEO of GM) to keep open the Janesville plant?
I don't blame Ryan or Obama for this plant closing. Phil Gramm, maybe I blame him (for stupidity in writing bills) and Ronnie Reagan and Billy Clinton and Newtie.
You and Ryan are both off the mark.
"Obama apparently failed in his effort to get the plant retooled and reopened "for the next 100 years"."
Based on what, exactly?
Reno_Dave says words matter, yet Obama never promised to keep the plant open. If you want to play that rhetorical game, then Dave's holding Obama to words he never said.
Ryan is just another Joe McCarthy, bigot, ignorant LIAR. Just substitute Socialism for Communism and Ryan's message is the same BS.
JeffFromVegas and ksand99,
I'll address both of your posts in this single one, just because I can.
Jeff, you wrote: "Where is Ryan's letter to Obama asking him (As you say -- the shadow CEO of GM) to keep open the Janesville plant?"
"I don't blame Ryan or Obama for this plant closing."
I have no idea where you got the idea that there was some letter from Ryan to Obama. I was referring to the letter you posted to GM CEO Wagoner, signed by Ryan.
I don't blame Obama for the closure of the Janesville plant, and neither does Ryan.
ksand99, you wrote:
"Reno_Dave says words matter, yet Obama never promised to keep the plant open. If you want to play that rhetorical game, then Dave's holding Obama to words he never said."
On Feb 13, 2008, in a speech at the Janesville plant, Candidate Obama stated, "We need to maintain our competitive edge in a global by ensuring that plants like this one stay open for another hundred years, and shuttered factories re-open as new industries that promise new jobs."
Then, in Oct 2008, when it was found that the plant would shut down sooner than expected, Obama went back to Janesville and said the following:
"As president, I will lead an effort to retool plants like the GM facility in Janesville so we can build the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow and create good-paying jobs in Wisconsin and all across America."
Both quotes may be found at the following link:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/...
Twice Obama said he would do things that would enable the plant to reopen, and yet it hasn't, because Obama's policies haven't enabled the kind of recovery that would allow Janesville, and other plants like it, to reopen.
And that was Ryan's point.
The impression left with people who don't pick words apart down to a microbe was that Ryan was saying Obama didn't keep his word.
That was the point of the statement, not clarifying detail, not fact, only the delivery of an intentional impression. It is part of the game.
Why didn't Bain Capital intervene and save the plant in Janesville? They could have done a leveraged buyout of that one plant. Surely they could have made a real hefty profit from management fees before it got closed?
Then we could be singing "Put the Blame on Bain, Boys!"
Dave says words matter, and cites two quotes from Obama.
Unfortunately, neither quote is a promise to reopen the Janesville plant. Specifically, Obama promised to help plants "like" the Janesville plant.
Words matter.
Ryan's point is that Obama had broken a promise... a promise that, with Doug's help, we've found doesn't actually exist.
Thanks for the help, Doug.
My name is Barack Obama and my budget got voted down 414-0.
"Forward"...LOL!