Never in the history of following politics have I encountered a bigger liar and fabricator than Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan.
In a not-so-stunning turn of events, the Grand Old Party selected yet another questionable candidate on a ticket that makes the party an even bigger joke than it has become in the post-Palin era.
This trend by the Republican Party is becoming more and more disconcerting.
There used to be decent races in presidential election years in which both parties would select candidates of equal intelligence, but those days seem to be gone.
In a party that is becoming increasingly militant and leaning further to the right than normal, it seems to me that the only candidate who has a chance these days must be incompetent, out-of-touch, misinformed or a combination of all three.
Even though I am a democrat as far as party affiliation goes, I have voted Republican in the past.
That being said, the candidates the party selects these days just makes me wonder how much drive they really have to win. I was a fan of John McCain, but I could not vote for a man who selected a nincompoop like Sarah Palin as his running partner.
Although I don’t share the same love for Mitt Romney, I can at least admit where the brains of the ticket lie.
As the 2008 presidential election shows, poise goes a long way.
Obama, with his stately demeanor and commanding presence, is the exact definition of “presidential.”
Ryan has this going for him, at least, as he is charismatic and has a certain amount of poise that clearly makes him seem “presidential.” But appearances can only go so far, and as the many lies he has been caught telling show, he can’t seem to keep all of his stories straight.
In addition to Ryan claiming that he can run a marathon in under three hours, which was later revealed to be untrue, the guy has made several other bald-faced lies.
According to Ryan, if we keep trudging down the path we’re on with President Obama, the country will eventually amount to nothing more than a barren wasteland devoid of any redeeming qualities.
How many times are we going to hear the same old song and dance about the country being in a downward spiral from a Republican politician?
This type of doomsday speak reminds me a lot of the rhetoric spouted by Palin.
What’s also disturbing is the trend of Republicans becoming so swept up in who the vice-presidential candidate is, that the presidential candidate himself takes a backseat to the whole process.
Remember “soccer moms for Palin?”
Following Ryan’s fallacious speech, Sally Kohn of Fox News wrote, “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.”
Read that last sentence again and consider that it came from a staffer from Fox News, which, over the years, hasn’t exactly been a Democrat’s best friend.
It’s pretty sad when your own party’s news station/mouthpiece calls you out on your nonsense.
While Ryan is definitely more likeable than the tree stump known as Mitt, we’ve clearly seen this play out before.
I predict that not only will Mitt’s popularity ratings fall, but in the end, this vice presidential pick will, once again, cost the Republicans the White House.
As President George W. Bush so eloquently reminded us back in 2002, “There’s an old saying in Tennessee – I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee – that says, fool me once, shame on…shame on you. Fool me…[twice]…you can’t get fooled again”.
Even through his stuttering, the message was clear: people must learn from their mistakes.
Apparently his party doesn’t share the same feeling.
Gerry Wachovsky is a graduate student and columnist for the Daily 49er.