Paul Ryan’s Marathon Fish Story
In a radio interview last week, Paul Ryan claimed to have run a sub-3 hour marathon. He did no such thing.
In a radio interview last week, Paul Ryan claimed to have run a sub-3 hour marathon. He did no such thing.
Here’s the relevant part of the interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt a few days back:
HH: That’s okay. Hey, in high school, what did you do in high school? Were you a speech and debate guy? Were you a bandie? What were you?
PR: No, I was student government and athletics, honor society, you know, that kind of thing. I was kind of a combination. I was class president my junior year, I was the school board rep my senior year. I lettered in varsity, you know, my first year in high school, mostly soccer and track. I was a distance runner and a soccer player. So kind of well-rounded. I can’t, I can play a cowbell. That’s about it for instruments.
HH: Are you still running?
PR: Yeah, I hurt a disc in my back, so I don’t run marathons anymore. I just run ten miles or yes.
HH: But you did run marathons at some point?
PR: Yeah, but I can’t do it anymore, because my back is just not that great.
HH: I’ve just gotta ask, what’s your personal best?
PR: Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something.
HH: Holy smokes. All right, now you go down to Miami University…
PR: I was fast when I was younger, yeah.
That’s a really fast marathon. As Jim Henley joked, “Paul Ryan ran a sub 3 hour marathon?? He must be Kenyan. Check his birth certificate!” The gang at Runners World was apparently a little skeptical and looked into it.
Runner’s World has been unable to find any marathon results by Ryan. Requests for more information from Ryan’s Washington and Wisconsin offices, and from the Romney-Ryan campaign, have so far gone unanswered.
If Ryan has broken 3:00, he’d be the fastest marathoner to be on a national ticket. John Edwards has run 3:30; George W. Bush has run 3:44; Sarah Palin has run 3:59; and Al Gore has run 4:58.
Ryan isn’t the first aspirant for national office to make a hard-to-verify claim about having run a marathon. John Kerry came under scrutiny when he ran for president in 2004 for saying that he’d run the Boston Marathon.
The November 2004 issue of Runner’s World reported that Kerry had run Boston in the 1970s but gave no supporting details. ESPN looked into the claim and wound up concluding “there’s no official record of his feat, and his campaign did not provide further details despite repeated inquiries.”
In an e-mail to Runner’s World last night, Tom Derderian, author of Boston Marathon, said, “It is very hard to prove a negative, but in doing my research I read every account in every newspaper about the Boston Marathon. I would have seen and noted that a US Senator ran.”
Ryan’s campaign wrote back to, er, walk back the story:
A spokesman for the Romney-Ryan campaign e-mailed Runner’s World today to say Ryan ran Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, while a college student in 1991.
When asked about Ryan’s finishing time, the spokesman said, “His comments on the [radio] show were the best of his recollection.”
Ryan’s name does not show up in the 1991 race results provided by Grandma’s. Runner’s World checked 11 years of results for Grandma’s Marathon, from 1988 through 1998, and found a finisher in the 1990 race by the name of Paul D. Ryan, 20, of Minneapolis.
Ryan’s middle name is Davis, and he was 20 in 1990. The finishing time listed was 4 hours, 1 minute and 25 seconds.
We are awaiting confirmation from the Ryan camp that the vice presidential nominee is the Paul D. Ryan listed in the race results – and, if he is, whether he ran any other marathons faster than 4:01:25.
Later, they added:
A spokesman confirmed late Friday that the Republican vice presidential candidate has run one marathon. That was the 1990 Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, where Ryan, then 20, is listed as having finished in 4 hours, 1 minute, and 25 seconds.
Ryan had said in a radio interview last week that his personal best was “Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something.”
In a statement issued to Runner’s World by a spokesman Friday night, Ryan said of his marathon experience:
“The race was more than 20 years ago, but my brother Tobin—who ran Boston last year—reminds me that he is the owner of the fastest marathon in the family and has never himself ran a sub-three. If I were to do any rounding, it would certainly be to four hours, not three. He gave me a good ribbing over this at dinner tonight.”
I’ve never been the athlete Ryan was and sure as hell am not in the kind of shape he is now. Yet, I can tell you my fastest 2-mile (12:09) and 10k (39:40) times–both from longer ago than Ryan’s marathon. So, no, I don’t believe his recollection was off by more than an hour. A two hour and fifty-something time would easily have qualified Ryan to run in the Boston Marathon; a 4 hour and 1 minute time is too slow for a 64-year-old—and just barely qualifies a 50-year-old woman. No way in hell he makes that mistake.
This is a classic case of what I years ago dubbed an “Al Gore lie,” after the reflexive tendency of the then-vice president to issue obviously untrue statements for no apparent reason. Politicians lie on the campaign trail all the time, of course. And, as the fictional Dr. House reminds us, everybody lies to cover up embarrassing truths or otherwise make themselves look better. But Gore, whose personal biography was surely impressive enough on its own merits, was constantly telling little stories that wouldn’t have been particularly useful to him even if they were true. That Gore had gone to Harvard and roomed with future movie star Tommy Lee Jones was an interesting story as it was; for no apparent reason, Gore stretched it so that he and Tipper were the inspiration for “Love Story,” forcing the author to say it wasn’t so.
Similarly, Paul Ryan is in fantastic shape for a 42-year-old man. His fitness is legendary and has already been the subject of fawning press stories since his announcement as Mitt Romney’s running mate. Who is it out there who’s sitting on the fence thinking to himself, “Sure, Ryan leads Hill people in grueling P90X workouts; but I’m not sure I can vote for him to be Romney’s understudy without evidence he’s run a sub-3 hour marathon”? Nobody, that’s who.
Is this going to sink his campaign? I doubt it. While John Kerry lost in 2004, I don’t think his marathon fib was the reason; indeed, I don’t recall having heard the story before. But this is yet another whiskey tango foxtrot moment for a campaign that doesn’t need any more of them.
Add it to lies in his acceptance speech and we have a pattern.
In April, when he rejected Objectivism, did he lie then too?
I think the Gore and Kerry stories did paint them, as “pols.” To the extent that Ryan needed to be “not an ordinary politician” this does him in.
I’d love to take credit for coming up with the joke, but that credit goes to commenter Wheat Farmer on Runner’s World. I’m happy to take credit for finding the joke, though.
If you use dynamic scoring 4 hours and 1 minute comes in at 2 hours and 50 something
Like Kerry’s marathon lie, this does not matter.
The many, many lies Ryan told in his speech about policy, history, and the president do matter. The near constant lies from Mitt Romney and the campaign about nearly every topic matter. Lying about a marathon? Meh. Whatever.
And to think that Ryan is supposed to be the Republican who is good at numbers.
His marathon story adds up in exactly the same way that his budget “plan” does – meaning, not at all.
@Jim Henley: In the new media, that’s practically the same thing. And, certainly, if you find THREE jokes someone else wrote and put a clever headline on it, they’re yours outright.
Wow, he just can’t help himself, right?
I will say this in his defense – compared to the lies he put out there in his convention speech this one is relatively minor.
I think what the “budget lies matter, running does not” people miss is that the unconnected voter has a hard time parsing budget lies. Who’s telling the truth? No one knows.
On the other hand, a sports lie is simple, uncomplicated, unnecessary, and clear.
What does this really matter at all? Does it change anything? NO, all politicians lie. Its a sad fact, but a true fact. And something this inconsequential, why does it matter? In fairness, now write an article on the lies that the current administration has told. I’m sure there are plenty of them to report on, many just as silly as this marathon time, and many that MUCH more important. Why cant we focus on what is truly important, preserving this great NATION, preserving our families and our way of life, and preserving our economy, and protecting this Nation from its enemies.
Kerry, how does giving Ryan a pass on a blatant and ridiculous lie help “preserve” your family and your way of life?
@Kerry Holt:
I’m sorry but the administration is not the one on the defensive. The Romney Ryan campaign has been pushing some Medicare stories, about $716 billion “cut” from Medicare. When the fact-checkers caught them on it, they said fact-checking didn’t matter.
In that environment, when a campaign depends on ignoring fact checking, Ryan gets fact checked on his running.
Some people not sure about the Medicare thing should now think twice.
The ease at which Ryan lies is the problem. If he lies badly then that is even a greater issue as it shows he is pathological. He had to know that sub 3 running would be world class and people notice that kind of capability. He did not flinch.
In re @Kerry Holt:
It’s always fun when an author on OTB gets called an Obama-shill (or whatever), especially if it’s James Joyner.
If Ryan lies this easily about stuff that doesn’t matter, why should we trust him to not lie about things that do matter?
Falsus in uno, falsus in totus.
(Totus is a 4th declension noun, right?)
Perfect picture James!
@James Joyner
Romney has this affliction too, much to the chagrin of his staffers:
http://blog.thephoenix.com/BLOGS/talkingpolitics/archive/2012/04/19/romney-s-fenway-fib.aspx
And a couple examples:
and:
I agree that there’s no way he’d forget it if he’d run a sub 3-hour marathon … the long hours on the road training for that kind of run would make it impossible.
On the other hand, I also agree it doesn’t matter – just another (and minor) example of “politicians lie”.
There’s plenty of reasons not to vote Romney-Ryan. This isn’t one of them.
BTW, considering their age and occupation, those aren’t bad times for Edwards, Bush and Palin. Palin’s especially surprised me, though in retrospect I don’t know why. Guess my lack of regard for her in general colored my expectation of what she might do athletically.
So…I’m supposed to care about guys bragging over their workouts?
@Fausta:
… I don’t know, should I be lying more?
@Fausta: Fausta has presented this thread’s most sophisticated variant of IOKIYAR thus far.
@Kerry Holt:
Why don’t you give us some examples?
When you are first be introduced to the American public, first impressions matter. Between the GM plant story in his speech and the marathon story it is easy for the average American, who had no idea who Paul Ryan was before a month ago, to conclude that he has a problem with the truth. Tough to get past that.
There are liars and there are pathological liars. Many politicians are in the former category. Only a few are in the latter. That few includes both Mitt and Ryan. They both lie even when there is little or nothing to gain by doing so. That’s a key sign that the lying is pathological.
Putting pathological liars into high office is a big, big mistake.
Another important example of Ryan lying hasn’t been mentioned:
I am a serious non-fan of Paul Ryan but this just doesn’t count as a “lie.” It counts as not remembering exactly what you achieved 20-odd years ago. It’s like asking me what my GRE scores were — I think I remember, kind of, but I could easily give you a number that was off. Maybe not off by Ryan’s order of magnitude, but since I’m still in academia I know what scores count as “pretty good but not superhuman” so I know what the range has to be. Maybe Ryan is just not constantly confronted with marathon numbers against which to remember his own.
Anyway, this is much ado about nothing, in my books. Let’s concentrate on the very calculated political lies that come out of his mouth on a daily basis.
@Me Me Me:
Only if I gave a damn about Kerry or Gore’s bragging.
Oh well, this isn’t as bad as Mitt lying about hunting a few years ago.
In all honesty I don’t think that “No way in hell he makes that mistake.” He doesn’t seem to be too interested in running as a sport.
In high school I won the school championship once. Today I have no idea what time I made back then. If I was pressed on air I might feel the need to state a plausible number. Given what I know about running today that number would very likely be way off.
To me this looks more like a crowd pleaser effect than a deliberate falsehood.
@ElizaJane: Yeah. For quite some time I actually would try to recall minutiae that people would ask about, sometimes straining and knowing that the thing I came up with couldn’t possibly be correct.
Fortunately I’ve grown to the point where I can say “I don’t remember” or “I don’t know” without feeling too defensive about it. Kind of wish talking heads and politicians could reach the same realization. And, when shown to be incorrect, say “I misremembered” or “I was wrong” without clumsy reasoning and circumlocutions designed to show that they were correct all along. It’s a waste of brainpower and sets one up for pratfalls.
I’m a runner and damn proud I finished two marathons. No, I don’t remember the exact time, but they were solidly north of five hours. I could no more ‘remember’ it to someone tat I broke five hours than I could remember I won the Nobel prize for physics. Paul Ryan ran a 4 hour marathon – dang respectable – but ‘mis-remembering’ it as 2:50+? That’s like bowling a 175 and remembering it as 275. That’s like shooting ten over par, with a couple of mulligan’s, and remembering it as two under, on a masters level course, from the pro tees with all rules rigorously enforced. That’s like throwing a key tackle on the game winning drive and remembering it as making a diving catch in the end zone to win the game.
Please. Guys do not forget this stuff. My best year as a high school athlete was 38 years ago. I remember exactly what I accomplished, and what I did not. I can tell you how many tackels I made in some of the games.
ElizaJane:
Tom Maguire is one of the most extreme right-wing hacks you could ever hope to find. His credentials in that regard are impeccable. This is what he said this morning:
Well, it’s nice to see OTB covering the serious issues. Slow news day?
Krugman:
In that earlier article, over two years ago, Krugman identified Ryan as a “flimlam man” and a ‘charlatan.’ He said “the Ryan plan is a fraud.” Krugman figured out years ago what a lot of other people just started noticing when they listened to Ryan’s speech the other night: he’s a highly skilled and pathological liar, just like Mitt.
===================
andy:
Someone else who thinks character doesn’t matter. A perfect Republican. But I bet you think Clinton lying about a blowjob was a ‘serious issue,’ right?
@jukeboxgrad:
Here’s a tip – maybe you should take comments at face value and not make a bunch of assumptions about what you imagine other people’s views and ideology are.
Lyin’ Ryan. What else is new. Here’s a guy who was a devoted, fanatical acolyte of Ayn Rand until he “discovered” she was an atheist about a year ago. Discovering that Ayn Rand is an atheist is like “discovering” the Pope is Catholic.
He’s a serial liar, perfectly in tune with Mitt Romney.
He’s not “serious,” he’s not “brilliant,” or any of the other GOP puffery — all of which used to be applied to Newt Gingrich. He’s a creepy little liar with a philosophy most people outgrow by their junior year.
How about this as an explanation for the lying, Ryan, being a fitness freak, is rather angry about the fact that his hurt disc means that he will never be able to run faster than the 4:01:25 he did, so he lies and tells people a time he thinks he would have been able to do if he hadn’t been injured.
Also, don’t think a hero from a Ayn Rand novel would do it so slow as 4:01:25.
Only moochers and looters do.
@PJ:
An Ayn Rand hero would do ultras, and only when no one is watching.
This is my favorite recent joke about lying.
Romney’s speech: “We all wanted President Obama to succeed.”
Jon Stewart, last night: “Bull f***ing sh*t!”
andy:
Here’s a tip – maybe you should answer the question I asked. My sentence that you’re whining about ended with a question mark. I notice that you haven’t answered the question. People who duck questions shouldn’t be surprised when others make assumptions about them.
@jukeboxgrad:
You didn’t simply ask a question. You stated that I think “character doesn’t matter” as if it were a fact and then insinuated that I’m a “perfect Republican.” It’s at that point you ask a question phrased in the form of an accusation and structured as if you already know the answer. Well, you, quite obviously, don’t know jack shit about me and I see no reason to answer your little “question” given you couldn’t bother to ask it honestly, nor without ad hominem editorializing.
But here’s a little info for you: I’m not a Republican. Never have been. I’m not a Democrat either. My affiliation is anti-partisan and I’m a man without a party. So, in the future, please don’t think you can lecture me or anyone else and deem yourself an expert on who they are or what they believe. Fair enough?
As the Daily Mail explains:
“‘Barack Obama: The Story’ by David Maraniss catalogues dozens of instances in which Obama deviated significantly from the truth in his book ‘Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance’. The 641-page book punctures the carefully-crafted narrative of Obama’s life.”
It’s almost as if the President of the United States turned himself into a multi-millionaire by defrauding the buyers of his book.
But the important thing to remember is that Paul Ryan exaggerated his marathon time. Got it.
@Scott: Wow Scott, that is some comparison you’ve got there. On the one hand, you’ve got what an British tabloid says about what a minor author says about marginal details in Obama’s autobiography.
On the other hand, you’ve got Paul Ryan undeniably simply flat out lying.
And you choose to apply the word “fraud” to Obama but let Ryan skate with a simple “exaggeration”.
I hit 714 home runs in the Major Leagues before Hank Aaron!
Oops! My bad. It was only 7 home runs and it was in Little League.
I guess I just msremembered since the records are so close. It’s a mistake anyone could have made, right?
This bit of investigative hutzpah is being brought to you by the same people that refuse to investigate Oh, Bummer’s college transcripts. Forgive me if I’m less than impressed
If I were a liberal journalist (redundant, I know) the first question I’d ask Ryan during an interview is whether “Marathon Man” is his favorite movie. The second question for him would be whether ‘Running on Empty” is his favorite tune. Oh, wait, my bad, Ryan’s into heavy metal, so I’d ask him if “Run to the Hills” is his favorite Iron Maiden track. I wouldn’t let up. Is “The Running Man” your favorite short story by Stephen King? So on, so forth.
In any case, fluff interviews with talk radio shows are not depositions and if you’re a politician and you’re not lying then you simply ain’t trying.
@ElizaJane:
Sorry, Eliza, and anyone else who thinks you can forget your best marathon time. You can’t. Period.
I’ve run nine. I have friends who have run one. Others who have run 2, 3, 4, and one friend who has run 23.
Every single one of them can tell you their best Marathon time to the second. If you’re never run a full marathon, you have no idea how much it takes over your life. Not the run itself, but the training.
You get up at 5am to run 10 miles before work – sometimes in the dark and rain.
You leave work at lunch time to squeeze in five miles because you didn’t get enough miles in the previous day.
You forsake parties on Saturday nights because you have a 15-17 mile run Sunday morning with your regular running group.
You watch everything you eat, and eat more carbs then you’ve ever eaten in your life.
You get pains, aches, and feel like quitting every long run.
Then, after 20-40 weeks of this sort of life, you get to run the marathon, and on that glorious day, it’s all worth it.
At the end, you swear you’ll ever do another one because you hurt so much.
Then, two weeks later, you can’t wait to do another one.
No runner EVER forgets his best marathon time. Ever. Paul Ryan was flat out lying.
My best time was 3:01:15 in Los Angeles in the very early 1990’s.. I missed qualifying for Boston by waiting in line two minutes for a porta-potty at mile 15.
I also ran 3:31 in Paris in 1994, 3:15 in Long Beach in 1993, and 3:12 in Las Vegas in 1992.
Is there anyone on this board who has run a marathon who does NOT remember their best time?
@Eric Florack: Eric, what on earth is the logical connection between Paul Ryan telling a ridiculous blatant lie and Obama’s college transcripts?
JJ: Concerning your comment on Gore and Love Sstory and other alleged prevarications- it seems to me you are not familiar with Bob Somerby- please go to howhegotthere.blogspot.com
@Eric Florack:
Hmmm… You didn’t ask for Romney’s college transcripts.
Or… John Kerry’s….
Or.. Bill Clinton’s…
Or.. Bob Dole’s…
Or.. Mitt Romney’s…
Hmmm.. What’s different about Obama that you need his college transcripts? What do you think is there? Why do you answer everything with… “But… But… Obama!!!”
Weak.
@Tsar Nicholas: I think that is third time in two days you have argued that Romney and Ryan get a pass for their lies because they are campaigning, not giving depositions.
So, by your logic, is it the case any lie that a politician tells outside of actually giving a sworn deposition is OK? Or do you pull out this trite bit of phraseology only when you want to give the guy you support a pass?
@Eric Florack:
Please explain to us exactly how one “investigates college transcripts”.
@EddieInCA:
Note that what Ryan did was lie about his ONLY marathon time. So, in fact, he told two lies: first, the blatant fabrication of his time. Secondly, his assertion that he had run more than one marathon but “had to give it up.
@Eric Florack: Or as the Romney-Ryan campaign announced shortly after Ryan was caught in several lies, they were not going to be deterred by fact-checking. Now there’s your ‘bummer’
@al-Ameda:
Fact-checking finished its marathon in 2:55, jumping several sharks in the process.
@Rick Almeida:
You ‘investigate’ to discover if Obama is black. Florack – who last I heard was an unemployed truck driver with a blatantly racist blog – seems convinced Obama took his place at Harvard.
You guys are so skeptical and mean…. Maybe Ryan retroactively ran a 2:50 marathon – never thought of that, did you?
@Eric Florack: That’s pretty weak. For one thing, what the hell do his college transcripts have to do with, well, anything? For another, he transferred to Columbia University, on of the best schools in the country. You think they didn’t check his transcripts? He graduated there with grades good enough to get into Harvard Law School, one of the top six and probably top two law schools in the country. He was president of their law review. Later, he was, by all accounts, an outstanding teacher at the University of Chicago’s law school, also one of the top six in the country.
Having a wee bit of familiarity with academe, having earned three degrees and teaching college for a number of years, I have zero question that Barack “Barry” Obama was one hell of a student. Further, all of the anecdotal evidence I’ve collected with my own eyes suggests that he’s incredibly bright, with an exceptional ability to think on his feet.
On what basis do you believe we need to investigate his transcripts?
@al-Ameda:
Several lies?
You mean about how Obama showed up at the plant at Janesville and told it’s (union) workers the place would be open for 100 years?
Oh, wait…
@James Joyner:
No more than running a marathon, James. No less, either.
Look, if the media and the left (but I repeat myself) is valid in it’s pressure on Romney to release his tax records… and they’re willing to ignore the fact that Romney has already released released a number of years…. and willing to back check Ryan on something as minor in the grand scheme as a marathon time, then how is it any less valid for them (and us, for that matter) to pressure Obama to release his transcripts?
It’s my take that Obama refuses to release his records because he knows he’ll be caught in a lie about his past, thus destroying his re-election chances. You cite hearsay evidence that he was a hellova student. Do the transcripts back that, or challange it? Did he gain admission as a foreign exchange student? That would tend to add fuel to the long standing questions of his citizenship.
Shorter Florack
Obama is black, so any claim of academic excellence is suspect. Guilty until prover innocent.
For those that don’t know, Michael is quite correct about Florack’s racist blog. And little bitsy is quite proud of it.
Florack racist idiot
@Eric Florack:
He never did anything of the sort, even if you’re using Ryan’s BS abridged version of his statement with the middle hacked out. Here’s what he actually said though:
This is a something Paul Ryan explicitly agreed with — from a letter he wrote in ’08, bemoaning the decision to shutter the plant :
http://paulryan.house.gov/uploadedfiles/ltr_gm_060308.pdf
Well, we could talk about Joe Biden’s lies about finishing in the top half of his law school class, about his getting a full-ride academic scholarship, about graduating with three degrees from college, etc. Things that you could not argue were simply mistakes, unlike Ryan’s claim to a sub-3:00:00 marathon.
If Ryan had run a lot of marathons, I could see the argument that he would not have forgotten his best time. As it is, I’m inclined to give him a pass.
Actually the important thing to remember is that Paul Ryan wants to destroy Medicare and that Mitt Romney approves (depending on which day of the week it is) of this…
@Jeremy R:
You seem to think Florack cares about facts or logic.
@Brainster:
My head is spinning. Why do you know all those things about Joe Biden? I’ll type this slowly: because they were big news that was reported in the, you know, news, back when they were, you know, news.
So now when Ryan makes news, it is also news. Or do you think that the amount of time that is devoted to discussing new news has to be counterbalanced by the same amount of time devoted to discussing old news?
It is simply a mistake if you are a Republican.
Are you also inclined to give him a pass on his second lie – that he had run multiple marathons?
Making up some story about a race isn’t the issue to me. Everyone embroiders their life a bit around the edges. But here’s a guy who knows everything he says is now being parsed. He tells a lie that he must know will be found out. And as many above have pointed out, he does it for no real gain. And he does it on the heels of an utterly dishonest convention speech. And on top of an utterly dishonest “conversion” from Objectivism to Catholicism.
There’s embellishing, and then there’s just clueless. He’s already used up his supply of free passes and he’s less than a month into this. That shows me he’s either pathological (as suggested by some above) or he’s immature and not ready for prime time.
Why are we giving this guy a free pass on the ‘readiness for office’ test? He’s young, he has very narrow experience — no private sector (aside from summers driving the Weinermobile), no academia, no military, no executive, nothing but Congress. College to Congress.
@Eric Florack: That’s right, Eric, running a marathon has nothing to do with anything.
Lying about running a marathon does.
Colbert on Paul Ryan’s Misleading GOP Convention Speech
A bad week to shave an hour off your marathon time.
“If these men win the election, it validates the strategy.”
@anjin-san: Oh, please. Race has nothing to do with it. Was Clinton black? Carter? Crying “racist” ain’t getting it done.
@Jeremy R: Chuck Sweeny: Paul Ryan didn’t lie about Barack Obama GM speech
Or, perhaps you’d like Obama’s speech?on the matter, where he makes that promise? Don’t tell me he never made that promise. THere it is in black and white.
@An Interested Party: So, stealing 716 billion USD from medicare, as Obama has, won’t destroy it? Even Obama liked Ryan’s plan, back in 2010, calling it “A serious proposal”. Did he take that back since then? Did he have his fingers crossed?
This is the upside to Ryan’s acceptance speech falsehoods – there were enough factually-challenged statements and they were egregious enough, that the political media had to finally declare “Shenanigans!” Hereafter, every Ryan utterance will be fact-checked.
Once a politician is labelled by the media, they are extremely loathe to counter the label and most stories always mention the reason a pol got tagged with the label. If Kerry is a flip-flopper and McCain is a maverick, it comes up in every frickin’ story that election season. So, basically, it’s “Lyin’ Ryan” from now until November.
If Ryan is now tagged as a liar, it will come up in every story and every factual assertion that he makes will be fact-checked.
(BTW, why this same pressure has not come to bear on Romney himself, escapes me entirely. He lies about things large and small all the time — check Steve Benen’s weekly recap. I don’t get it.)
It’s nice to know that you are as dishonest as Paul Ryan…the money that was moved from Medicare to PPACA is actually going to help seniors, with programs like closing the doughnut hole in the their prescription drug plan…oh and Ryan’s plan is indeed a serious proposal….a serious proposal to destroy Medicare…
@ Florack
Of course. Just show us where you have referred to Clinton or Carter as “n**gger” on your blog.
I believe Obama ran a sub 2:40 marathon, but then he is Kenyan.
Steve
Seriously. This is what you post James? After months of tirades about “distractions” in politics? Really? This is what matters?
andy:
I’m pretty sure that what I know exceeds “jack shit.” For example, I know that you have a history here of being evasive (link). So I’m not surprised to find you evasive.
There are several possible reasons that you’re still ducking my question, and with increasing umbrage, but the most parsimonious reason is that my original assumptions about you are correct.
florack/bithead/buzz buzz:
Speaking of chutzpah, it takes a lot of that to keep showing up here even though you are a known liar (example). Don’t you think it’s time for you to change your name again?
What a surprise that other liars flock to defend Lyin’ Ryan.
james:
You listed some good reasons, but I’ll add one that you omitted, that I think is important. He achieved magna cum laude at HLS, which means top grades at a top school, under a system of blind grading. That’s why Jim Lindgren, no friend of Obama, said this:
The people whining about his transcripts work hard at refusing to understand this. They also like to pretend that a transcript release is normal, even though no POTUS or major candidate has ever done that. For Bush, Gore and Perry, they were leaked. For Kerry, he released it after he was no longer a candidate.
This is the time Ryan claimed: “Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something.” This was his actual time: 4:01:25.
To put this in perspective, some marathon statistics might be helpful (link), in addition to the numbers James already posted. This is based on “approximately 523,000 marathon finishing times … recorded in the USA in 2011.”
Average time for all men: 4:26:43
Average time for men ages 20-24 (Ryan was 20): 4:22:48
% of men with time 4:00:00 or less: 37.5
% of men with time 3:00:00 or less: 2.9
So a man beating 4 hours is doing better than 62.5% of all men. A man beating 3 hours is doing better than 97.1% of all men. So that’s why Hewitt said “holy smokes,” because he knows that beating 3 hours is a big deal. But beating 4 hours (and Ryan didn’t even do that) is not a big deal at all. It’s just a little above average.
And the problem is not just that Ryan said “under three.” What happens next is also important, because he essentially repeated the lie. This is nicely explained here:
This is a key indication that the time he mentioned a moment earlier was not just a slip of the tongue. Here (“I was fast when I was younger”) he is deliberately repeating the lie, because he wasn’t “fast when [he] was younger.” He was just average.
This is the classic behavior of a narcissistic pathological liar. The pattern is to inflate your achievements, sometimes drastically, for the purpose of gaining admiration. It’s so habitual you do it without thinking about it. (And the habit might be even stronger on a phone call like this, because the listener is not physically present and watching you; possibly the lying is a bit harder when facing a live crowd.) And you get caught sometimes, but you just laugh it off and act like it was an innocent and humorous mistake (“he [Ryan’s brother] gave me a good ribbing over this at dinner tonight”).
By the way, notice that Ryan at age 20 achieved a time (4:01:25) not as good as what Palin achieved at age 41 (3:59:36). Another clue that his actual time was mediocre.
And since various people have ignored it, it’s important to repeat what Krugman said:
The problem is not the marathon lie. The problem is that Ryan is a marathon liar. The marathon lie is just the latest example in his marathon of lies.
me me me:
This is an important point that is largely overlooked. There is this:
Trouble is, Hewitt and Ryan both said “marathons,” plural (and Ryan did it first). He was trying to create the impression that he had run several or many, even though he only ran one.
Lyin’ Ryan. Given his impressive track record, only a fool would accept any claim he makes unless it can be independently verified. If he tells you what time it is, you better also check your watch.
@michael reynolds: As usual, you’re wrong.
Hardly unemployed, I’m a Senior driver, and a driver trainer.
That after spending 2 years as a systems analyst… until the most recent presidential election…. shortly after which I was on the street looking up where my office used to be, along with the 400+ people I supported.
In short, I’m one of the many millions of under-employed in the economic mess Obama created.
At the very least you’d think you could get your facts right. Tehn again, if you did, you’d likely not be speaking up as often, huh?
@Eric Florack:
How did Obama create the economic mess that occurred before he took office?
@An Interested Party:
Your dodging, and not very well. The Obama plan destroys Medicare.
And of course what they’re replacing Medicare with, limits care to seniors…. Death panels, the whole nine yards. Everything the left has denied is in there, turns out to be foundational in Obamacare. It’s the Democrats tossing grandma off the cliff in her wheelchair because keeping her alive will cost of the government too much.
Why would Dems lie like this? Bob Beckel the other day, noted, in a rare moment of truth, that Democrats always had great history scaring the Hell out of seniors over medicare. He worries it won’t work this time… and with little tidbits like this, he’s quite right; it will not work..The truth.. the left’s worst enemy… is known.
@anjin-san: And that would have what to do with anything? You’re over-reaching, Anjin. Nothing new with that, I suppose.
@ElizaJane:
Except that as others have pointed out, marathon runners remember their times as clearly as they remember their wedding day or the birth of their children. Given the amount of training and effort that goes into them, that’s not too surprising.
Marathon runners also appear to get quite prickly about people BSing over their times, for the same reason. Those times are about as cut and dried as facts can get, and don’t need flaming garments or animated puppets when judging them. It’s different in degree from fabricating a war record, but it’s not necessarily different in kind.
@Eric Florack:
And exactly how did President Obama create the 2008 collapse of the financial and housing markets?
@al-Ameda: Obama didn’t. THe liberalisjm he subscribes to, did.
Housing collapsed because of the calculated political move on the part of the left, then headed by BUbba Clinton, to force banks to provide housing lending to people who couldn’t afford it, under the guise of “Fairness”.
Oh… as to Obamacare vs Medicare, perhaps Paul Ryan can speak to that point?
Can you identify for me what legislation the Democrats passed that forced non-bank mortgage companies to make no-doc, cash-out refi’s on McMansions in the far outer suburbs, and on second homes in Florida?
Oops… typo, above… not 2 years…. 20 years as an SA. My bad.
@Me Me Me: That’s not where the majority of the traffic went.
You wouldn’t know this, I suppose, but the place I was working for 10 of that 20 years as an SA was at a major bank, supporting the home equity division. I know this stuff from the inside. I was THERE. The laons to which you refer were a small part of the traffic and a VERY small part of the defaults. The vast majority of the defaults came from the low income people who benefitted from the lowered loan standards.
The problem, of course started by Carter in 1977. As Wikipedia says…
As written in 1977 the CRA was fairly innocuousand caused no insurmountable problems, from an economic standpoint. The trouble really began when Bubba and the Democrats in Congress dove in, prior to the 1992 GOP takeover of Congress: (Wikipedia, again)
Funny thing; Turns out he was right.
@Eric Florack: What a load of rubbish.
http://www.businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/archives/2008/09/community_reinvestment_act_had_nothing_to_do_with_subprime_crisis.html
The vast majority of crap loans that went tits up were not subject to the CRA because they were made by non-banks.
florack:
Naturally. It probably had something to do with the guy from “the left” who said this (video):
You might also be thinking of the guy from “the left” who said this:
Sharing some frustration about that guy from “the left” was Sen. Chris Bond (R), who said this (4/08):
Yup, I sure can see why you think the problem is “the left.” Your claims are roughly as credible as Ryan’s claims about his “marathons.”
So we can add pu$$y to the many other terms to describe you…why not man up and take responsibility for your own problems rather than blaming them on the President…I thought conservatives were supposed to be all about personal responsibility…
Doing your Paul Ryan impersonation again, I see…sorry to inform you, but it ain’t working…
Ah, more of your legendary inside information. I remember 2008, when you spent the days leading up to the election crowing about your special inside information that told you McCain was surging on on his way to a big win. How did that work out for you?
Yep, you did IT support for a bank. You were pretty much sitting at Bernanke’s elbow.
@Eric Florack:
And exactly how did the Left (or Liberals, you decide …) force Wall Street to bundle the mortgages into sub-prime derivative investments and sell them to institutional investors around the world?
Oh, you mean like Citigroup did? You remember Citibank… Who now has Robert Rubin on their staff, alonmg with a host of former Clintonistas? IN looking around, I find…
Now, what would these Citibank folks be doing with so many Clintonista on their payroll?
Clinton, knowing this, used his influence to get such banks to finance his attempt to buy minority votes. Worked, too… and we’re still dealing with the financial mess he left us with.
That falls directly at the feet of Bill CLinton.
florack/bithead/buzz buzz, you need to address this:
You also need to explain this lie.
I can see you’re really busy coming up with new lies, but every now and then you should take a break and clean up a few of your old ones.
Something I didn’t know (link):
Did he mean to say 30? 10? 0? Hard to tell.
And he’s too modest to mention it, but he also regularly swims the English Channel.
If you want to know how sleazy that story on Love Story by Melinda Henneberger
of NY Times was, check out http://howhegotthere.blogspot.com/ and re-read her
report closely. (Hint: Why do you think her report is titled “Author of Love Story disputes a Gore Story”, and not “Author of Love Story disputes Gore” ?)
Gore had heard from reports in Tennessee that Segal had modeled his characters
after Al and Tipper Gore, according to Karen Tumulty, who actually interviewed
Al Gore. But those reports were not entirely accurate – Segal had not modeled any
character after Tipper.
And Segal *DEFENDED* Gore – he confirmed that Gore was one of the models, and
he also criticized Time for not reporting clearly that Al Gore was talking about what
he had heard from reports in Tennessee.
You are only showing how easily you can be played by NY Times.
@Eric Florack:
Thanks for the talking points, it was colorful and pleasantly evasive.
Yet, again: Please explain how Liberals forced Wall Street to bundle subprime mortgages into derivative investments that were purchased by institutional investors around the world.