Paul Ryan's Job Tonight (Besides Lie about Medicare)

I would guess that the first thing the MSM will look at is, did he give a fiery speech, did he rev up the base? But I assume he could practically stand up there and read the phone book and do that.

What I'm more interested in is, what can he say that might be compelling to moderate voters? That seems like a bigger challenge for him and is thus a more interesting question. Of course, he'll lie. He'll say he's "strengthening" Medicare. But I mean that's true.

The MSM still falls for this guy. Wisconsin is close now, blah blah blah. I myself expressed concern the other day that the Ryan Medicare lies were working, and that the Obama team was slow to answer them, and that if Obama can't build back a Medicare advantage, he'll lose.

But here comes John Sides, a liberal political scientist, of the Monkey Cage blog to say that the GOP is not "winning the battle over Paul Ryan." Look at his chart. Three months' worth of YouGov polls have shown Ryan's unfavorability climbing higher than his favorability, particularly after Romney named him his veep choice. And that's while he's been getting pretty good press. Wait til the Obama campaign starts airing ads about his budget.

In any case, he's the big show tonight, and if he has the temerity to quote from Adan Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, come forewarned and forearmed: Read Leon Wieseltier's excellent smack-down, and especially the devastating section about Smith on page three.

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Michael TomaskySpecial Correspondent

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