A commenter at Brad DeLong (via Paul Krugman) on why the media needs Paul Ryans:
The Beltway NEEDS Ryan. They need to have “intelligent”, “thoughtful” conservatives to lavish praise on to show they aren’t part of the “liberal media.” And they need him to create the “balance” which is at the heart of their world. “Not all Republicans are crazy , thumping their bibles and shouting angry nonsense about the conspiracy of global warming — why, look at Paul Ryan! The Republican proposals and solutions are just as valid and well thought out as the Democratic ones. He said/she said forever!”
If — and I’ll believe it when I see it — Ryan has finally managed to tarnish himself to the point where he can no longer fulfill that role, they’ll create a successor, and then another after that. Ryan is the product of the peculiar dynamic that owns Washington; he isn’t an accident or anomaly, and Ryanism will not go away with Ryan, any more then Broderism went away with Broder.
Spaghetti Lee
That’s about right. But it baffles me how Paul Ryan in particular got chosen. There’s gotta be some Republican in the house who’s not so transparently foolish and sleazy. Maybe the whole persona appeals to something in the GOPer soul that I can’t grasp.
Guster
Is there a reason I can’t monetize this myself and pay for my son’s college?
I could knock out ‘Serious Conservatism’ in a week.
FlipYrWhig
When your colleagues are people like Virginia Foxx, Paul Broun, and Louis Gohmert, it doesn’t take much brainpower to secure a reputation as the Thinking Man’s
Sex SymbolConservative Politico.Redshift
Ryan’s likely to be a Beltway darling for a long time, because he’s good-looking and he writes stuff that has actual numbers in it, so he must be smart.
Look how long they’ve clung to John McCain, despite the fact that he has absolutely no accomplishments other than McCain-Feingold, and repeatedly demonstrates that he doesn’t really know anything about anything.
Niques
So all the teabagger newbies in office have been auditioning? Now it makes perfect sense!
We’re in the middle of a reality show. Wonder what the payoff is for the winner of “Republican Idol”?
MikeJ
Reading the riders pdf, we know why the comPost lurves Ryan:
Redshift
@Guster: That depends. Do you have a sense of shame? One of the major qualifications is that you need to have no shame.
balconesfault
Ryan got chosen because there was a complete vacuum of ideas in the GOP … and so you throw something that’s not very dense into a vacuum and it expands, possibly even exploding.
Ryan’s ideas are getting play because they’re the only “ideas” that the GOP has that add up … even if the addition is based on rainbows and unicorns and fairy dust assumptions.
Cris
A writer at balloon-juice quotes a commenter at Brad Delong.
Martin
It also helps that Ryan is from a battleground state not known for being overly polarizing either left or right. He represents the proper middle of America. It’s why guys like Grassley and Baucus were taken seriously during the HCR issue, and it’s why Pelosi is so strongly derided. It’s not just the candidate, but also the people they represent.
Guster
@Redshift: I do, but as my child ages and my income drops, I’m learning to overcome it.
FlipYrWhig
@Martin: Good idea, but Lindsey Graham also gets treated as Serious.
debbie
Fast talking gets you anywhere.
Mark S.
The media used to portray Newt as something of a genius (“Gingrich is just brimming with bold ideas, even if I don’t agree with all of them”). Joke Line still does it; everyone else moved on to the next piece of ass.
fourlegsgood
@Spaghetti Lee:
Can you name one? because I can’t.
There’s no one left in the GOP caucus who isn’t a. a fool b. a charlatan c. ignorant d. fundamentally dishonest or e. all of the above.
JGabriel
@Spaghetti Lee:
Ryan’s a Randroid. That signifies Serious Intellectual among the right.
It’s laughable, or would be if the consequences hadn’t been so tragic for the past 30-50 years.
.
fourlegsgood
@Redshift: He’s good looking? compared to what?
a regurgitated piece of road kill?
Lev
This post summarizes my feelings pretty well, and I think the Search for a Reasonable Republican aspect is pretty constant in the media. The media was able to sell the Myth of McCain largely on this basis and the people bought it. But I don’t think they’ll be able to sell Ryan that way for a few reasons:
1) McCain initially became popular for actually advocating popular positions that Republicans generally disliked, like campaign finance, PABOR, Pat Robertson, etc. Ryan’s budget is going to be HATED.
2) McCain actually had a decent bio and all that. Have no idea what Ryan’s life was like, I’m guessing torture victim doesn’t figure into it.
3) McCain largely got to introduce himself on his own terms and manage his own first impressions in the 2000 campaign. Most people have never heard of Paul Ryan, and if their introduction is that he’s The Guy Who Will End Medicare, it won’t be so good no matter what David Brooks has to say.
fourlegsgood
I think this post is the last straw for me. I’m not mad at Obama, or Balloon Juice, or our host, or even particularly the democratic party (though they aren’t heroes in any of this either.)
No, I’ve had it with my fellow citizens who seem to be cheering and partying as Rome burns. Morons. They are getting exactly the government they deserve.
Pat
Yep, all of that and they just love to gaze at his Ronnie Reagan hair!
Mark S.
Yglesias often says that everybody he knows raves about how smart Eric Cantor is, but everytime I’ve seen Cantor on TV he seems just as dumb as Boehner or Pence.
Lev
@fourlegsgood: My dichotomy for Republicans is that they fall into three basic camps, in order of prevalence: nuts, crooks, and wimps. There’s not a single Republican you can’t fit into one of those categories, though some (like Pat Robertson) might fit two. The wimp wing mostly encompasses the moderate wing (Snowe, Kirk, etc.), though also what we might consider “sane conservatives” like Orrin Hatch.
@FlipYrWhig: From what I hear, Lindsey Graham is very social and good at making friends in DC. He makes no more or less sense than Tom Coburn (less, actually), but if Lindsey can get reporters to say to themselves, “Hey, Lindsey’s a nice guy. I can talk to him like an actual person,” his job is done.
Redshift
@fourlegsgood: I dunno. I don’t think he’s particularly good-looking, but they seem to.
FlipYrWhig
@Lev:
Totally. It works like this. The media is stung by accusations of “liberal bias,” so they bend over backwards to run down liberals and dig up non-liberals to praise. They fasten on Republicans who aren’t Bible-bangers or open racists.
Especially ones who use… numbers. Media people never know what to do with numbers; they think the presence of numbers _at all_ is the sign of honest debate among experts with divergent views.
Mark S.
Eh, I think Lindsay is pretty smart. You try getting elected as a gay man in South Carolina.
FlipYrWhig
@Lev:
Yup, and I should have mentioned that in my last comment. McCain coasted with the media on the strength of his willingness to tell war stories and dirty jokes. The media expects Republicans to be stick-up-the-butt God-squadder prudes. Being able to have a casual conversation with any Republican impresses them tremendously, it seems.
DonkeyKong
Playing at the Multiplex in a Village far, far away…..
Obama: Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1.
Ryan: Never tell me the odds.
Elia Isquire
I think this commenter is right but I also think paternalistic class bias is at play, too.
Zifnab
You know, I hear that on occasion. But I never see the Affordable Care Act or the Climate Change Bill or Immigration Reform get treated very seriously when a Democrat presents it.
Somehow, the burden of proof is always on the Democrats. And the threshold of believability, or necessity, or whatever line in the sand needs to get cross to not do nothing, is always just a little too high to both with.
But you get Ryan in there with his Medicare abolishment bill, and that’s a game changer. Suddenly, no legislation is more serious. No moment is more critical. :-p
Lev
@FlipYrWhig: But of course. It’s insane overcompensation. Let’s not forget that these people were the ones who were certain that ordinary Americans were outraged by Bill Clinton’s affair. Of course, ordinary Americans either didn’t give a shit, or figured that as long as he could do the job…I’ll bet there were even more than a few redneck types who thought Clinton was awesome because of it. The great unwashed masses turned out to be more enlightened and unshakable than the D.C. Press Corps. So what good are they again?
Davis X. Machina
They haven’t made the people yet who deserve that government.
Well, Yankees fans, yes. But not an entire country.
FlipYrWhig
@Zifnab: What’s particularly weird about it is that Democrats, in order to get this kind of treatment, have to do “hippie-punching” stuff. That’s how they show they’re serious. But somehow Republicans can show their own seriousness by lavishing money on Republican interests and punching the most vulnerable members of society. I think it’s because pundits have this cynical view that politicians promise to give people stuff, so any politician who makes a promise to take stuff away from people is automatically a Serious trailblazer.
(But promising to tax the rich doesn’t count, because it’s, like, too easy, which is why it… never happens… waitaminit…)
Lev
@FlipYrWhig: Also, every time I see your user name, the eponymous Husker Du song gets stuck in my head. Which is not a bad thing at all.
Corner Stone
Speaking of come and go, say goodbye to Gen Ham:
General: US may consider sending troops into Libya
“The U.S. may consider sending troops into Libya with a possible international ground force that could aid the rebels, the former U.S. commander of the military mission said Thursday, describing the ongoing operation as a stalemate that is more likely to go on now that America has handed control to NATO.”
“But he noted that, in a new tactic, Gadhafi’s forces are making airstrikes more difficult by staging their fighters and vehicles near civilian areas such as schools and mosques.”
Ha ha ha! Hoocoodanode??
Davis X. Machina
I think it’s because pundits have this cynical view…
If you’re cynical, corrupt, and just going through the motions, you have to believe that everyone else, especially politicians, is equally cynical, corrupt, and equally just going through the motions, too.
Because if there were actually people out there who cared, to whom this stuff mattered, then your whole life would be a lie, and empty shell, and a reproach in the eyes of decent people. And then you’d start to think that maybe you’d have to eat a bullet or something….
But that can’t be the case, so….
Villago Delenda Est
This is precisely why, when The Revolution arrives, the vermin of the Village are amongst the very first to be put up against the wall.
My loathing of these fucking courtiers is beyond measure.
jayboat
a post by a guy I know in ft lauderdale:
I do a fair amount of engine control work for the USCG vessels..
I received a call today from the Finance Dept. that the money spigot was turned off at noon EST today, and to cease work on anything in progress until further notice.
just ducky
shep
I said it first. Though to be fair, with more shrill:
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2011/04/06/the-nitty-gritty-details-of-paul-ryan%e2%80%99s-medicare-plan/comment-page-1/#comment-265056
Baud
@Zifnab: I agree, although I think part of the problem is that Democrats do this to themselves (undermine their own agenda) by starting internecine wars whenever they debate an important piece of legislation.
Spaghetti Lee
If only I was old enough and Wisconsin residenty-enough, I’d love to run for congress for Wisconsin’s 1st district. I don’t particularly care if I beat the fucker or not, just an opportunity to yell at him for a few months. Maybe I should plan my career around this when I’m out of college.
Zifnab
@FlipYrWhig:
Which would make sense if you believed it took some kind of political courage to take away benefits or entitlements in 2011. I mean, Reagen definitely had balls when he pulled this shit in 1981. But we’ve been cutting taxes and slashing spending ever since.
It’s like hearing someone wax poetic about the fresh new beats of Ted Nugget.
Spaghetti Lee
@Zifnab:
the fresh new beats of Ted Nugget.
Some sort of McDonalds-themed rapper?
Mark S.
@Corner Stone:
Crafty bastards.
I love how we think our enemies are supposed to paint big bulls-eyes on their heads, and they are somehow playing unfair if they don’t.
Roger Moore
@FlipYrWhig:
I think it’s because the pundits are in the class that gets the most benefit from Republican policies and don’t interact much with the ones who will suffer. The Republican plans are great for them personally while still having one or two things that let them pretend they’re sharing in the proles’ suffering.
eemom
….they’re just like streetcars.
The Thin Black Duke
Devout cynic that I am, I’m cautiously optimistic. We’re not slurping Soylent Green outta cheap dirty plastic bowls yet.
Bottom line, most of the people living in the real world don’t see Ryan as a courageous, steely-eyed iconoclast willing to grab the deadly “third rail” of politics with his brave hands. Uh-uh. Ryan is that crazy mofo that wants to kill Medicaid. He’s Barney Fife pimping genocide with a soft wet smile. The Banality of Evil, indeed.
I’m sorry, but even if those mischievous wizards at ILM were applying the lipstick, this pig ain’t gonna be pretty.
Corner Stone
@Mark S.: Who would have ever guessed they wouldn’t ride in a straight line down Death St, so the drones could drone ’em?
Highway of Death: Libya Edition
pattonbt
I think it’s easier than that. The major media outlets are for profit industries. They have to sell to stay in business. Fairytales, like Ryan’s budget, sell on many levels. They do no care that much about “being impartial” by building up Ryan’s. Impartiality doesn’t factor in.
These people (the presenters, their parent companies, the bulk of their consumers) simply want to believe the BS Ryan is selling. It tells them a few things; 1) things are tough, we know, but it’s not your fault, it’s the fault of those dirty “others”, 2) we know if we make the”others” hurt, your libertarian paradise will flourish, 3) and, with us, you can have your cake, eat it, not gain weight (actually lose weight!) and have it for free (while those damn dirty “others” can’t have any).
Ryan is the dream they all really, really, really want to believe is possible. American Exceptionalism is Divine, we do not have to pay a price for anything that is hard, nothing done outside the US can be better or equally as good as what we do, etc.
It’s wishful thinking, clap louder, we MUST be better kind of self delusional reinforcement necessity that stops people from having to make hard decisions and actually think about and work towards decent balanced policy.
Policy doesn’t sell well enough to stop people from Ryan being necessary.
Calouste
@Mark S.:
Not crafty. Using human shields is a warcrime.
Elia Isquire
@Corner Stone: Disaster.
Mnemosyne
@Cris:
A writer at Balloon-Juice quotes a NY Times columnist quoting a commenter from Brad DeLong’s blog.
If you’re going to lay blame, it’ll have to accrue to Krugman here.
Delia
Wasn’t it Voltaire who said “If there are no intelligent, non-insane conservatives, then the Villagers will have to invent them.”?
Dennis SGMM
@Corner Stone:
Wheee, here we go! One part of the piece that you linked jumped right out at me:
No one could have anticipated that the Colonel, realizing that the West relies heavily on air power to throw its weight around, would quietly stockpile shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles! He’s cheating, I tells ya’. That he was able to stockpile 20,000 of the things says much about our knowledge of the international arms trade and, in turn, worlds about the effectiveness of our multi-billion-dollar security apparatus.
FlipYrWhig
@Lev:
Nice of you to notice. It’s supposed to be Husker’s “Flip Your Wig,” with “Your” switched to “Yr” in honor of Sonic Youth’s “Kill Yr Idols” and “Wig” switched to “Whig” in honor of, um, political history. What can I say, I was a college-rock dork and proceeded to become any number of other kinds of dork.
FlipYrWhig
@Zifnab:
True. But for print and TV pundits it’s never not 1968 (hippies vs. hardhats), except when it’s 1989 (collapse of communism). For blog pundits it’s never not 2003 (Iraq II), except for Bob Somerby, for whom it’s never not 1999 (Gore and earth tones, he said while emitting mordant chuckles).
Comrade Luke
As Matt Taibbi calls him in a recent blog post:
FlipYrWhig
@Comrade Luke: Rand Paul isn’t quite like the others, because he’s much less polished and slick-seeming. And did Ralph Reed care about the deficit? But, yes, there’s a blow-dried Stock Republican that always crops up.
Delia
@Dennis SGMM:
Ya know, I’m no sort of military historian, but I think I read somewhere that it’s a general rule that the side that relies solely on air power loses. Sort of a corollary to the rule for ancient military history that the side with the most elephants loses. It really sucks when you’re dealing with such a bad element as Gaddafi, but there it is. I suppose the Boy Scout motto of “Be Prepared” carries some implication of knowing just what the situation is that you’re getting yourself into.
Dennis SGMM
@Comrade Luke:
From Matt’s keyboard to God’s ears.
General Stuck
When the rain washes clean, then you will know.
Dennis SGMM
@Delia:
I’m a very minor, amateur historian and you can not study history without touching on military history. I think that we may still be stuck back in the lessons of WWII when air superiority proved decisive. That it was not decisive in Korea and failed to turn the tide in Vietnam are facts that the military-industrial complex refuses to acknowledge. Our current super-duper-kill-o-zap fighter, the F22, had no mission in Libya. Despite that, we’re now throwing billions at the F35. Air superiority has its place on the battlefield. It’s just not the whole thing – as our adventures in Afghanistan are proving.
FlipYrWhig
@Dennis SGMM: By reputation the Balkans conflicts of the ’90s were decided by air superiority. Should I not believe the hype?
Corner Stone
@Dennis SGMM:
Ha! Just like every other tin pot dictator in the world, we knew exactly what he had before Uncle Billy said “jump”.
We’ve got copies of the receipts down in a Langley area code basement.
Delia
The arguments I’ve heard about air power in WWII is that despite the initial success of the German Blitzkrieg and the final blow of the American atom bombs, the relentless bombing of civilian cities by both sides, supposedly to destroy morale and cause people to give up, had relatively little effect [on morale, that is] and only caused people to dig in more firmly in support of their own nation.
And that was certainly the case in Vietnam, of course. And when you deal with an enemy who can’t compete with your weapons, of course he’ll turn to another strategy.
Dennis SGMM
@FlipYrWhig:
To my mind, airpower was a huge help in the Balkans because there was a developed infrastructure there that could be disrupted from the air and, in turn, hurt the enemy. There were also UN troops and dedicated partisans on the ground. Destroying Libya’s modest infrastructure will likely hurt non-combatants more than it hurts Gaddafi because he seems to have anticipated this very scenario.
Lolis
This is how Republicans win. They demoralize us by their pure stupidity. The Democrats get frustrated we are not beating these idiots and then get mad at our own party.
The truth is it is really hard to beat an opponent who won’t play by the rules and will blow the whole place up out of spite.
Corner Stone
@Dennis SGMM: Our doctrine has been laid bare over the last 10 years. Throw in when Hezbollah tossed the Israeli heavy corps for a loop a couple years back, and asymmetrical warfare is a whole new ballgame.
We’ve bought a rattlesnake for dinner but the sommelier isn’t telling us he isn’t dispatched yet.
Elia Isquire
@Comrade Luke: I read this earlier and thought, “You mean….like Republicans.” Not a dig, just sayin’.
Corner Stone
We (NATO et al) clearly have situational air superiority. We can bomb anything we choose to, anywhere. We don’t really need to even risk the A-10s any longer.
But with zero coordination between the rebels and NATO, and frankly, competing desires between NATO and the rebels, we’re seeing the limits of air power.
It’s fucking stupid as all hell for Gen Ham to say, “in a new tactic, Gaddafi’s burying his heavy weapons among civilians”.
Really? Really, you stupid fucking asshole?! This is news to you?? No. It is not news to Gen Ham. Gen Ham forgot more about warfare than I know about masturbation. So if I determined this was inevitable I’m pretty sure Gen Ham and his bosses knew it was also.
It is absolutely going to take combat troops pulling triggers to push Gaddafi’s forces out of key areas.
Dennis SGMM
@Corner Stone:
As I mentioned above, I’m a minor student of history. One thing about the military side of it is that whenever someone came up with a crushing weapon(Or strategy), everyone else wanted to either emulate it or if straightened circumstances demand, improvise a counter for it. Our military establishment has accumulated so much momentum behind certain strategies and weapons systems that it is unable to react in a timely manner to changes on the ground. Having fought in a counter-insurgency war long ago I can reasonably assure you that the phrase “Are you fucking kidding me?” is still current among the troops.
Corner Stone
@Dennis SGMM: Perfect example, I read about IEDs that have no metal parts and no chemical explosives inside.
They’re undetectable for all intents and purposes. Can’t do a radio sweep trying to pre-trigger, and can’t use sniffers to find them.
IMO, I think Libya is years behind Iraq, re: insurgent technology and tactics. But they’re gonna catch right the fuck up, real quick like.
Corner Stone
What does the West, NATO, do when Gaddafi takes back his country?
Comrade DougJ
@Cris:
It’s a good quote. I had nothing to add to it. The guy said it well.
JGabriel
@Comrade DougJ: Or guyette. The only MG I ever knew was a woman.
Which sounds like it should be a song lyric, but it’s not.
.
Cris
@Comrade DougJ: No argument, just riffin’.