On ABC’s “This Week” roundtable Sunday, former Bush strategist Matthew Dowd added himself to the list of mainstream political commentators who questioned the sincerity of Paul Ryan’s attacks on President Obama during his convention speech.
Here’s a transcript of that discussion between Dowd, host George Stephanopoulos and Democratic strategist Donna Brazile (emphasis added):
DOWD: George, I think that — I mean, to me, the biggest problem with this argument, and if — like if you can still find a little — tiny little kernel way down deep, it’s like partially true and we’re going to make this argument.
The truth has become a casualty in the course of this campaign on both sides of the aisle. The truth is a casualty in this. It’s as if we’re going to make any argument possible that’s going — advantageous our side in order to overcome the other side.
The Republicans do it. The Democrats do it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Same scale?
BRAZILE: No.
DOWD: Not necessarily on the same scale. But we’ll see it at this convention. Because, I think, from my perspective, what happened at this convention is that nobody is calling on it, or maybe a few people are calling on it. Paul Ryan, what he did in his speech, I think, so stretched the truth, and I like Paul Ryan, I have a lot of great respect for Paul Ryan, but [what] he said about closing the GM plant, which closed before Barack Obama took president, about the Simpson-Bowles bill which — Simpson-Bowles, which he opposed, and then all of a sudden you see faults Barack Obama for. At some point the truth should matter.
