Fox News says Paul Ryan was lying

[RecycleMichael]

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/30/paul-ryans-speech-in-three-words/#ixzz251rvLkSe

Paul Ryan's speech in 3 words
By Sally Kohn
Published August 30, 2012
FoxNews.com

1. Dazzling

At least a quarter of Americans still don't know who Paul Ryan is, and only about half who know and have an opinion of him view him favorably. So, Ryan's primary job tonight was to introduce himself and make himself seem likeable, and he did that well. The personal parts of the speech were very personally delivered, especially the touching parts where Ryan talked about his father and mother and their roles in his life. And at the end of the speech, when Ryan cheered the crowd to its feet, he showed an energy and enthusiasm that's what voters want in leaders and what Republicans have been desperately lacking in this campaign.

To anyone watching Ryan's speech who hasn't been paying much attention to the ins and outs and accusations of the campaign, I suspect Ryan came across as a smart, passionate and all-around nice guy — the sort of guy you can imagine having a friendly chat with while watching your kids play soccer together. And for a lot of voters, what matters isn't what candidates have done or what they promise to do —it's personality. On this measure, Mitt Romney has been catastrophically struggling and with his speech, Ryan humanized himself and presumably by extension, the top of the ticket.

2. Deceiving

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. The good news is that the Romney-Ryan campaign has likely created dozens of new jobs among the legions of additional fact checkers that media outlets are rushing to hire to sift through the mountain of cow dung that flowed from Ryan's mouth. Said fact checkers have already condemned certain arguments that Ryan still irresponsibly repeated.

Fact: While Ryan tried to pin the downgrade of the United States' credit rating on spending under President Obama, the credit rating was actually downgraded because Republicans threatened not to raise the debt ceiling.

Fact: While Ryan blamed President Obama for the shut down of a GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, the plant was actually closed under President George W. Bush. Ryan actually asked for federal spending to save the plant, while Romney has criticized the auto industry bailout that President Obama ultimately enacted to prevent other plants from closing.

Fact: Though Ryan insisted that President Obama wants to give all the credit for private sector success to government, that isn't what the president said. Period.

Fact: Though Paul Ryan accused President Obama of taking $716 billion out of Medicare, the fact is that that amount was savings in Medicare reimbursement rates (which, incidentally, save Medicare recipients out-of-pocket costs, too) and Ryan himself embraced these savings in his budget plan.

Elections should be about competing based on your record in the past and your vision for the future, not competing to see who can get away with the most lies and distortions without voters noticing or bother to care. Both parties should hold themselves to that standard. Republicans should be ashamed that there was even one misrepresentation in Ryan's speech but sadly, there were many.

3. Distracting

And then there's what Ryan didn't talk about. Ryan didn't mention his extremist stance on banning all abortions with no exception for rape or incest, a stance that is out of touch with 75% of American voters. Ryan didn't mention his previous plan to hand over Social Security to Wall Street. Ryan didn't mention his numerous votes to raise spending and balloon the deficit when George W. Bush was president. Ryan didn't mention how his budget would eviscerate programs that help the poor and raise taxes on 95% of Americans in order to cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires even further and increase — yes, increase —the deficit.

These aspects of Ryan's resume and ideology are sticky to say the least. He would have been wise to tackle them head on and try and explain them away in his first real introduction to voters. But instead of Ryan airing his own dirty laundry, Democrats will get the chance. At the end of his speech, Ryan quoted his dad, who used to say to him, ""Son. You have a choice: You can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution." Ryan may have helped solve some of the likeability problems facing Romney, but ultimately by trying to deceive voters about basic facts and trying to distract voters from his own record, Ryan's speech caused a much larger problem for himself and his running mate.

[Townsend]

I'm seeing "Lyin' Ryan" on the interwebs now.

[nathanm]

I'm seeing "Lyin' Ryan" on the interwebs now.

You're a bit behind.

[Conan71]

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/30/paul-ryans-speech-in-three-words/#ixzz251rvLkSe

Paul Ryan's speech in 3 words
By Sally Kohn
Published August 30, 2012
FoxNews.com

1. Dazzling

At least a quarter of Americans still don't know who Paul Ryan is, and only about half who know and have an opinion of him view him favorably. So, Ryan's primary job tonight was to introduce himself and make himself seem likeable, and he did that well. The personal parts of the speech were very personally delivered, especially the touching parts where Ryan talked about his father and mother and their roles in his life. And at the end of the speech, when Ryan cheered the crowd to its feet, he showed an energy and enthusiasm that's what voters want in leaders and what Republicans have been desperately lacking in this campaign.

To anyone watching Ryan's speech who hasn't been paying much attention to the ins and outs and accusations of the campaign, I suspect Ryan came across as a smart, passionate and all-around nice guy — the sort of guy you can imagine having a friendly chat with while watching your kids play soccer together. And for a lot of voters, what matters isn't what candidates have done or what they promise to do —it's personality. On this measure, Mitt Romney has been catastrophically struggling and with his speech, Ryan humanized himself and presumably by extension, the top of the ticket.

2. Deceiving

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. The good news is that the Romney-Ryan campaign has likely created dozens of new jobs among the legions of additional fact checkers that media outlets are rushing to hire to sift through the mountain of cow dung that flowed from Ryan's mouth. Said fact checkers have already condemned certain arguments that Ryan still irresponsibly repeated.

Fact: While Ryan tried to pin the downgrade of the United States' credit rating on spending under President Obama, the credit rating was actually downgraded because Republicans threatened not to raise the debt ceiling.

Fact: While Ryan blamed President Obama for the shut down of a GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, the plant was actually closed under President George W. Bush. Ryan actually asked for federal spending to save the plant, while Romney has criticized the auto industry bailout that President Obama ultimately enacted to prevent other plants from closing.

Fact: Though Ryan insisted that President Obama wants to give all the credit for private sector success to government, that isn't what the president said. Period.

Fact: Though Paul Ryan accused President Obama of taking $716 billion out of Medicare, the fact is that that amount was savings in Medicare reimbursement rates (which, incidentally, save Medicare recipients out-of-pocket costs, too) and Ryan himself embraced these savings in his budget plan.

Elections should be about competing based on your record in the past and your vision for the future, not competing to see who can get away with the most lies and distortions without voters noticing or bother to care. Both parties should hold themselves to that standard. Republicans should be ashamed that there was even one misrepresentation in Ryan's speech but sadly, there were many.

3. Distracting

And then there's what Ryan didn't talk about. Ryan didn't mention his extremist stance on banning all abortions with no exception for rape or incest, a stance that is out of touch with 75% of American voters. Ryan didn't mention his previous plan to hand over Social Security to Wall Street. Ryan didn't mention his numerous votes to raise spending and balloon the deficit when George W. Bush was president. Ryan didn't mention how his budget would eviscerate programs that help the poor and raise taxes on 95% of Americans in order to cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires even further and increase — yes, increase —the deficit.

These aspects of Ryan's resume and ideology are sticky to say the least. He would have been wise to tackle them head on and try and explain them away in his first real introduction to voters. But instead of Ryan airing his own dirty laundry, Democrats will get the chance. At the end of his speech, Ryan quoted his dad, who used to say to him, ""Son. You have a choice: You can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution." Ryan may have helped solve some of the likeability problems facing Romney, but ultimately by trying to deceive voters about basic facts and trying to distract voters from his own record, Ryan's speech caused a much larger problem for himself and his running mate.

That's quite an impressive reach-around.  Kudos, Sally!

[Ed W]

It says much when Fox has to point out the obvious untruths from one of their own. 

Meanwhile, over in Limbaugh Land..."Paul Ryan is us!"  Pass them oxys over here, Rushbo.

[TulsaRufnex]

Fox News chooses their token vacuous liberals carefully....

[Townsend]

You're a bit behind.

Jerk store called.

[nathanm]

Jerk store called.

Letting you know it'll be a while before your shipment arrives, I trust?

[guido911]

Sally Kohn gets fact-checked.

http://www.mrctv.org/blog/fact-checking-sally-kohn

RM, I just cannot understand how you were calling Obama a liar less than four years ago and those criticisms have just stopped. Why aren't you looking into his continued problems with the truth?

[RecycleMichael]

RM, I just cannot understand how you were calling Obama a liar less than four years ago and those criticisms have just stopped. Why aren't you looking into his continued problems with the truth?

I still have issues with President Obama. I have written about these in the past.

But I also have issues with Romney and Ryan. So now I write about them.

I can find good and bad with members of both parties and am not afraid to express them.

If you continue your obsession with what I write, I am going to expect a better Christmas gift.

[Hoss]

Yeah, because MRC (Media Research Center...who, BTW, launched Newsbusters) is soooo unbiased.

LOL.

[Conan71]

I still have issues with President Obama. I have written about these in the past.

Why don't you write about the issues you still have with Obama?  Some of us would like to hear them to make a well-informed decision in November.

[Hoss]

Why don't you write about the issues you still have with Obama?  Some of us would like to hear them to make a well-informed decision in November.

I think some of you have already made up your minds.   

[erfalf]

Yeah, because MRC (Media Research Center...who, BTW, launched Newsbusters) is soooo unbiased.

LOL.

The door swings both ways. You should be commending Fox for publishing something like this.

Edit:
And considering MRC actually quoted some sources, instead of they say, I saying it all the way through it ought to be something as well.

[Hoss]

The door swings both ways. You should be commending Fox for publishing something like this.

I have.  But then to have a conservative leaning web outlet be sourced as a rebuttal?  I know you're young, but come on...