Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.”
Coming right off Ryan’s speech Wolf Blitzer and Erin Burnett seemed unable not to mention that Ryan’s speech had well … contained a lot of pretty huge fibs. So euphemisms to the rescue. The transcript …
Blitzer: So there he is, the republican vice presidential nominee and his beautiful family there. His mom is up there. This is exactly what this crowd of republicans here certainly republicans all across the country were hoping for. He delivered a powerful speech. Erin, a powerful speech. Although I marked at least seven or eight points I’m sure the fact checkers will have some opportunities to dispute if they want to go forward, I’m sure they will. As far as mitt romney’s campaign is concerned, paul ryan on this night delivered.
Burnett: That’s right. Certainly so. We were jotting down points. There will be issues with some of the facts. But it motivated people. He’s a man who says I care deeply about every single word. I want to do a good job. And he delivered on that. Precise, clear, and passionate.
On optics and on motivating the audience, a good speech. The convention was pumped for Ryan considerably more than for Mitt. It was also a speech of astonishing intellectual dishonesty — on small things, like when plants closed; and much larger things like the entire economic trajectory of the last three and a half years.
At the top of his speech Paul Ryan scorned President Obama for failing to save a GM plant in his home town. Only the plant closed under President Bush.
10:27 PM — Ryan takes the stage.
10:29 PM — “Fear and division is all they’ve got left.”
10:34 PM — Ummm … about that auto plant Obama didn’t save? It closed under President Bush.
10:37 PM — So instead of making job creation his first priority, President Obama pushed the stimulus bill.
10:39 PM — Ryan pillories the $700 billion of cuts to Medicare dollars for insurance companies that Ryan himself endorsed. #hardchoices
10:40 PM — Ryan will protect Medicare by changing it into a voucher program.
10:42 — “Obamacare, as much as anything else, explains why a presidency that began with such anticipation now comes to such a disappointing close. It began with a financial crisis; it ends with a job crisis.” Ends with a jobs crisis? Didn’t that start at the end of 2008?
Mike Huckabee: “The only hitch in an otherwise perfect week was the awful noise coming from the hotel room next door to mine. Turns out it was just Debbie Wasserman Schultz practicing her speech for the DNC in Charlotte next week. Bless her heart.”
Rand Paul’s deadenderism on Obamacare: “The whole damn thing is still unconstitutional!”
So just we’re clear: Paul Ryan’s main signature policy is to change Medicare from a defined benefit to a defined contribution health care plan. Or to put it more simply, to turn it into a voucher program. Let’s see how much attention that fact gets tonight — either in his speech or in the press reaction.
Late Update: 9:09 PM — CNN reporter says Paul Ryan is interested in ‘reforming’ Medicare.