Poor, poor Paul Ryan. Can anyone truly understand the sheer difficulty of his new job?
In his first interview after Tuesday’s big speech, Ryan told Capital Download about the difficulties of keeping a poker face for an hour while he was visible in the camera shot, staring at the back of President Obama’s head.
Yes, this is where we're at. The Republican Speaker of the House complaining about the difficulty of maintaining basic civility during major presidential speeches. At least none of his fellow congress members shouted things out this time.
“Basically, I disagreed with much of what he had to say, and I just wanted to be respectful and not wince or grimace or do anything,” he told USA TODAY’s weekly video newsmaker series. “So I just kind of poker-faced the whole thing, just out of respect for the institution, the office. The State of the Union is a great thing, and I just basically wanted to be wallpaper and not be a part of it from an expression point of view.”
Surely, one of America's true statesmen. I can see now why he is considered one of the party's great minds.
“I guess what I was thinking is, every time he was saying something, I’m sort of refuting it in my mind,” he said. “Or if I agree with it I’m agreeing with it my mind, or if he’s adding up numbers, I’m adding those up in my mind.
It wasn't necessarily that Speaker Paul Ryan is opposed to curing cancer, you see. He just cannot be seen having a public opinion on curing cancer or absolutely anything else if there is a danger that his opinion might coincide with the opinion of some Democrat, somewhere.
You know: Leadership.