There has been a lot of media (and blog and Facebook and Twitter) attention on Paul Ryan's Janesville lie, in which he blames Barack Obama for the closing of an auto plant which closed before Obama was President. But with all the attention on the flagrant lie, much less attention has been paid to the real content of Ryan's claim. What if the plant had closed several months later, when Obama was President? We'd lose the flagrant lie, but we'd still have this:
1) For a supporter of capitalism, Ryan shows an appalling ignorance about how capitalism works. The decision to close the Janesville plant was made by the CEO and the Board of Directors of GM, not by Obama (and, in the real world where the rest of us live, not by George Bush either). If Ryan's laid-off high-school buddies (if such people do exist, which can't be taken for granted given Ryan's propensity for lying) are mad at anyone, shouldn't they be mad at those guys and not at Obama (or again, in the real world, at Bush)?
2) What was Ryan trying to say, anyway? Was he denouncing his running mate Mitt Romney and his vocal opposition to the auto bailout, and trying to dissociate himself from Romney's "Let Detroit go bankrupt" comment?
3) Or was Ryan renouncing his alleged allegiance to Ayn Rand (actually, he already did that when he supported the auto bailout)? The idea that anyone who claims to find inspiration in the ideas of Ayn Rand would think that it is the government's job to keep an unprofitable auto plant open is absurd, so if Ryan is blaming Obama (again, real world: Bush) for not doing enough, surely this is more than enough to make us laugh in his face when he claims to be a believer in Rand's ideas.
4) Or, in the end, was this just an anecdote Ryan was using to try to convince us that Obama hasn't kept all his promises? That's certainly true, but there are dozens and dozens of real examples ("the most transparent government ever," "restoring respect for the rule of law," and closing Guantanamo just to name three). Surely Ryan could have picked an example which didn't expose him for the complete hypocrite that he is (as well as, of course, a compulsive liar).
I do hope Candy Crowley was paying attention and might ask him some of these questions at the Vice-Presidential debate. But I won't hold my breath.