They love the lies Paul Ryan tells
Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan delivers the keynote address during the third day of the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum Aug. 29, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. / AFP/Getty Images
(The Nation) It fell to Mitch McConnell, arguably the lousiest public speaker ever to practice the political craft, to sum up everything that can or should be said about the Republican National Convention.
Opening the "We Can Change It" themed second night of he convention with a call to remove President Obama, the Senate minority leader declared that it was time to put "Mitt Ryan" in charge of the republic.
Forgive McConnell.
He just said what everyone at the convention seemed to be thinking: Wouldn't it be cool if Paul Ryan were topping the ticket?
Special Section: Republican Convention 2012
Fact-checking 6 claims in Ryan's convention speech
Paul Ryan: Attack dog
Republicans did everything they could during the long campaign for the party's 2012 nomination to signal that they wanted Anyone But Romney. They got themselves all excited about Michele Bachmann, and Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich (seriously). They even voted for Rick Santorum, again and again and again. The Ron Paul people never gave up.
When all was said and done, Romney's money bought him the nod. That did not mean, however, that Republicans ever could or would come to love him.
But they do love Paul Ryan.
On the floor of the Tampa convention hall, as the moment of the congressman from Wisconsin's address approached, the delegates could not help themselves.
"I'm feeling like it's 1980," New York Republican Party chairman Ed Cox told me just minutes before Ryan spoke. "Just like 1980, with Reagan."
Why? "I've felt it since Paul Ryan came on the ticket."
A few feet away, the godmother of Republican social conservatism, Phyllis Schlafly pronounced herself "very satisfied" with the ticket.
Why? "I really like Paul Ryan."
And so it was, delegation to delegation, section to section, across the hall where Republicans gathered for their fortieth national convention.
A month ago, Mitt Romney looked like a loser. And even if the GOP ticket is not exactly soaring in the polls, Republican spirits have been soaring since Ryan was added to the ticket.
Why? Because Paul Ryan isn't just, as Ed Cox suggests, rather Reaganesque in looks and demeanor. He's rather Reaganesque in his approach to reality.
Ryan does not speak hard truths. He tells Republicans stories that they like to hear. Even if they are not true.
Ryan began the most-anticipated address of the convention with a biographical soliloquy that referenced his factory-town roots in Janesville, Wisconsin.
"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," Ryan told the convention.
"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," continued Ryan. "Well, as it turned out, that plant didn't last another year."
True. Obama spoke the words that Ryan quoted. But Ryan's clear suggestion that Obama -- or his policies -- had something to do with the plant closure was a lie.
The government that was not there to support the Janesville workers was the administration of George W. Bush. GM announced and implemented the closure of the plant during Bush's presidency.
When a newly elected President Obama rushed to save the domestic auto industry, and perhaps to renew the prospects of shuttered plants like the one in Janesville, the man whose campaign Ryan is now propping up wrote an op-ed titled "Let Detroit [and, presumably Janesville] Go Bankrupt."
And since we're on the subject of government failing the workers in Paul Ryan's hometown, surely it is relevant to bring up the congressman's repeated votes for free-trade agreements that members of Janesville's United Auto Workers Local 95 warned would undermine and ultimately shutter their workplace.
A man who would use his hometown as a prop and then try to deceive the country about the causes of its circumstance has a certain appeal to Republican delegates who cut their political teeth making the case for trickle-down economics and weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Ryan actually pushed the envelope, peddling new fantasies, like the spin that says: "Obamacare comes to more than 2,000 pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees, and fines that have no place in a free country."
This will come to news as news to Britain, Canada, Germany and other American allies that somehow keep the light of liberty shining even as they guarantee all citizens access to quality healthcare.
Come to think of it, there are quite a few rules associated with Medicare. Yet Ryan -- who has for years championed the radical deconstruction of the program -- came off like Lyndon Johnson's long-lost twin Wednesday night, as he preached no compromise in the defense of a government-organized healthcare system.
John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, is a Washington correspondent for The Nation. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
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(AP) WASHINGTON - U.S. employers added 96,000 jobs last month, a weak figure that could slow any momentum President Barack Obama hoped to gain from his speech to the Democratic National Convention.
The unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent in July, but only because more people gave up looking for work. The government only counts people as unemployed if they are actively searching.
The Labor Department also says 41,000 fewer jobs were created in July and June than first estimated. The economy has added just 139,000 jobs a month since the beginning of the year, below 2011's average of 153,000.
However it is kind of funny to watch. The Jamesville, WI. auto plant is STILL closed even after the President took over GM. The $716 billion in savings from Medicare are still slated to fund the new expanded Medicaid entitlements instead of remaining in the Medicare program. Finally, the Simpsom Bowles recommendations voted against by Ryan were immediately followed up with an alternate house plan. Where in the hell is the President's actual proposal to cut spending? He says he is ready to deal, but we have yet to hear a single REAL spending cut from his administration. The President seems to continually proposes immediate tax increases and vague future spending cuts. It sounds very disingenuous and is an ardent failure in leadership for those of us looking for real solutions.
As a former independent, I must say that Ryan and Romney are much more credible to unbiased Americans and will certainly be getting my vote this November.