Monday, September 3, 2012

Paul Ryan's Delusions of Grandeur

A couple weeks ago (I'm rounding), Hugh Hewitt interviewed Paul Ryan.  While talking about the marathons that he used to run, Ryan said that his personal best was "Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something."

The Fact-Checkers Who Shall Not Run the Campaign did a little research and discovered that this was, in fact, false.  The one marathon that Ryan ran (at age 20) took him just over four hours to complete.

Ryan admitted that he misspoke and even added that: "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."

Many in the bloggosphere are calling this a clumsy, Palinesque lie (one that is self-aggrandizing and easily disproved).  However, the Ryan campaign pointed out that the race was over 20 years ago, and the candidate spoke according to the best of his recollection.

In an episode of Seinfeld, serial liar George Costanza once explained how he beat the lie detector by saying: "It's not a lie if you believe it."

I am inclined to give Paul Ryan the benefit of the doubt regarding his marathon time.  I think he has believed for decades that he ran a sub-three-hour marathon.  He remembered it that way because it made him feel more important and accomplished, just as he remembers pulling himself up by his bootstraps rather than being born into privilege and going on the government dole after his father's death.

So the next time Paul Ryan says something outrageous and factually untrue, don't be so quick to call him a liar.  Remember the words of George Costanza.

6 comments:

Tim Morrissey said...

Nah. Ryan's an inveterate liar.

Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC said...

No doubt. He lies about everything because, well...he's a Republican. And Obama tells the truth all the time. As do Pelosi, Reid, DWS, and the lot of them. Off-topic, but fun to cover none-the-less, what I really like is how the DNC venerated the late Teddy Kennedy, who was a noted womanizer right after railing about the (bullshit) Republican War on Women. Really? A guy who effectively murdered a young woman (who may-or-may-not have been pregnant by him) by driving drunk. Christ you guys are unbelievable in your hypocrisy. And Sandra Fluke? A 30-year-old woman who is still in college (what? the ten-year plan?) demanding we stay out of her bedroom while we pay for what goes on there?

You will still be scratching your asses at Christmas wondering how you could have gotten your collective asses beaten so badly 6 weeks before.

For "smart people", you really aren't. Your motives and memes are so transparent as to be laughable. Absurd is a term that is not descriptive enough. You are angry and hateful toward us while we laugh at you until we can't stand it. The Democrat party has become a freak show.

JFlee said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Tim Morrissey said...

For "smart people", you really aren't.

Having a different opinion is a mark of low intelligence, right Deekaman?

James Greenlee said...

I'd be willing to bet that he rounded that time down repeatedly over the years to the point that he really didn't remember the real time. Kind of like a fish story. If you exaggerate each time you tell a story, eventually you're going to forget the real thing. But yeah, it still boils down to: liar!

Dan said...

As someone who has run marathons in my life a long time ago, I still recognize the difference between a 4 hour marathon and a 2:50 marathon and I called him out on it.
However, when you compare this lie against the democrats lies, it's almost trivial.
Yeah, he screwed up, but he manned up and admitted his mistake.
When are the Dem's going to start admitting their lies?