Paul Ryan's "charm"

OK, Dionne, I've had about all I can take of this Beltway civility crap. Subsequent to enumerating Paul Ryan's wishful sins against humanity, you write: 

None of this takes away from Ryan’s charm or seriousness.... He is great to engage with and really believes what he says.

You know who else was charming, engaging, and really self-believing, E.J.? Hermann Goering. And though the Luftwaffe's chief was actually less ideological than Ryan--"Now you've got your fucking war!" screamed a horrified Goering to Foreign Minister Ribbentrop in 1939--he could chatter away on enchanting white clouds of goofpowder about his party's coming utopian solutions.

Yeah, Herm was engaging, all right. But you know what the thumpers say, even if they can't seem to appreciate its contemporary profundity: "Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness." And charm.

p.s.:

What Ryan is good at is exploiting the willful gullibility of the Beltway media, using a soft-focus style to play into their desire to have a conservative wonk they can say nice things about. And apparently the trick still works.

--Paul Krugman

Comments

[AnneJ]

I never could stand the sight of Paul Ryan or the sound of his voice. He's congressman Eddie Haskell, his phoniness just as transparent.

[Sue Me]

Let me get this staight...it's not what you say, but how you say it? BS!

[Turgidson]

The beltway media's inexplicable crush on this fraud is indeed painful to behold. And it could move the needle a bit in the direction of R&R temporarily.

But we have witnessed with the savage and successful Bain/Taxes assault on Romney that the Villager media doesn't know jack. The Obama campaign will ferociously demolish Ryan's so-called credentials for the job, the Village will recoil in horror at the impoliteness of it all, and Ryan's approval ratings in the swing states and among key demographics will deservedly sink like a stone.

Because the Obama campaign is really good at this. And unlike some past Democratic campaigns, they're smart enough not to listen to what idiots like Halperin are saying about the horse race and do their own research and follow their own plan. A plan that will relentlessly highlight that Ryan is, to quote Charlie Pierce, a zombie-eyed granny starver, and a total fraud on top of it.

[Beauzeaux]

The zombie-eyed granny-starver won't fool anyone for very long.

[Robert Lipscomb]

If only Barry White was still alive to sing the Ryan budget ...

[Frankly Curious]

I don't quite get the serious thing. I understand that Ryan doesn't have a silly grin on his face when he presents a new budget like substance. But no one would call a child who sternly refuses to apply himself to his math studies a "serious student of math." I'll grant you that he is serious about pushing this right wing ideology. But he is *not* serious about the budget.

As for Robert Lipscomb's comment: "Can't get enough of your cash, babe!"

[oddjob]

Re: "the serious thing"

"What [William Saletan's] doing – and what the whole Beltway media crowd has done – is to slot Ryan into a role someone is supposed to be playing in their political play, that of the thoughtful, serious conservative wonk. In reality, Ryan is nothing like that; he’s a hard-core conservative, with a voting record as far right as Michelle Bachman’s, who has shown no competence at all on the numbers thing."
- Paul Krugman

I'm inclined to agree with Krugman.