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“Yes, Paul Ryan lied, and yes, it matters”
By Michael Cohen

If a politician says he ran a marathon in just under three hours when he actually ran it in four hours, does it matter? Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a question of much political significance, but in light of the fact that the fibber in question is Republican Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan, it merits some explication.

The reason is hard not to figure out: In his brief period on the national stage, Paul Ryan has demonstrated an uneasy relationship with the truth. His acceptance speech on Wednesday night was one of the most dishonest political speeches in recent U.S. political history. While some like Ben Smith at BuzzFeed call Ryan’s flights of factual fancy “policy differences” with President Obama, this misunderstands what actually is a policy difference and what is a lie – and why Ryan’s incessant lying, including about marathon times, is actually pretty important….

All of this brings us back to Ryan’s somewhat innocuous marathon lie. In a vacuum no one would care – or necessarily should care – that an exaggeration this like was proffered. While I find it a bit hard to believe that any marathoner would forget their final time by an hour, it’s of course possible that Ryan simply misspoke as his spokesman has claimed. While I have my suspicions, I cannot look inside Ryan’s soul to divine the truth.

But if you look at it in the larger context of Ryan’s speech on Wednesday, it takes on greater significance – and suggests that Paul Ryan is not just an occasional fibber but rather a person for whom lying is routine activity. It’s pretty hard to imagine a situation in which that pattern of lying isn’t a relevant political issue.

See also: Rosie Ruiz Republicans by Paul Krugman
Ryan Gives Detailed Account of Day He Killed Bin Laden Borowitz Report
The Five Reasons Romney/Ryan Must be Defeated in 2012 – and Why Conservatives Should Hope They Are by Kurt Eichenwald

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