So the lies are starting to unravel. As with most pathological lairs, the unraveling begins with a small detail or two. Soon, as credibility lessens and uncertainty increases, the bigger lies fall apart. Such is the case with Paul Ryan as his election campaign has now issued a statement that Paul Ryan has lied to the American people.
Last week, Ryan shared a seemingly inconsequential story:
I had a two hour and fifty-something" marathon, Ryan said last week an interview. "I hurt a disc in my back, so I don’t run marathons anymore."
But now we learn that Ryan's campaign has had to walk back the comments:
But the Ryan campaign confirmed to Runner's World that he has only run one marathon, the 1990 Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, which he finished in just over 4 hours.
Ryan has offered an explanation that closely mirrors the inept mathematical skills he brings to his job as Budget Chair:
"The race was more than 20 years ago, but 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," Ryan said in a prepared statement. "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."
Nothing like ribbing your brother, the Republican nominee for Vice-President, for being a bald faced liar. Good times!
As we all know, this isn't the first time Mr. Ryan has come under attack for stretching the truth. His RNC speech is still being analyzed by a legion of analysts, a task that has taken exceptionally longer to complete than anticipated to complete because of the shear volume of lies.
So, the pack of lies is starting to unravel. Soon, the media might even shift to focusing on the broader, policy lies Ryan touts and Romney encourages. Paul Krugman has pointed out the signifance of Ryan's admission that he is a liar:
But I remember the 2000 campaign, when Al Gore was constantly hounded by claims of fibbing on trivial issues — claims that, by the way, were all, as far as I could tell, fabricated. These alleged fibs supposedly showed some deep defect in his character. So if Ryan is making false claims about his physical prowess, this is absolutely fair game.
Let the unraveling commence!