Opening Act: Smile

Opening Act: Smile

Opening Act: Smile

Weigel
Reporting on Politics and Policy.
Oct. 12 2012 7:01 AM

Opening Act: Smile

LOUISVILLE -- I'm headed north to La Crosse, Wisconsin, right behind the vice president, and I'll be in the Badger state for a few days of reporting. In the meantime, let us consider the post-debate spin. On Thursday morning, Rep. Paul Ryan was the guy who bow-hunted for fun and posed for pictures of his P90X workout. On Thursday night, he had been unfairly bullied by an old guy.

This just seems like illiteracy.

Vice President Joe Biden accused Rep. Paul Ryan of putting two wars on the “credit card,” and then suggested he voted against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“By the way, they talk about this great recession like it fell out of the sky–like, ‘Oh my goodness, where did it come from?’” Biden said. “It came from this man voting to put two wars on a credit card, at the same time, put a prescription drug plan on the credit card, a trillion dollar tax cut for the very wealthy. I was there, I voted against them."

The answer is about the recession; Biden is obviously referring to the tax cuts, not the wars. Apparently, Karl Rove endorsed this interpretation of the remark.

McKay Coppins remembers that Paul Ryan was supposed to bring the ticket in line with heroic conservatism.

People don't actually know what the "Ryan budget" does.