Sandi Behrns's post on Liberal | Latest updates on Sulia

Arrogance and Lies: How the Ryan Speech May Have Really Hurt Romney/Ryan 2012

As I wrote last night, after Paul Ryan's breath-takingly dishonest speech, the Romney/Ryan team feels it worth the risk to double down on the lies, because they simply don't expect the voters they need (their base and low-information swing voters) to take the time to read all the fact-check pieces that were inevitable today. But there's more to it than that, and there's a chance they may have gone too far and grossly miscalculated. You see, aside from counting on voters to be both ignorant and unmotivated to get at the truth, they also rely upon the press corps to act like stenographers, rather than journalists. (And stenographers who have, thus far, been fawning fans of Ryan.) As long as the story that emerged this morning was that Ryan gave a powerful and well-received speech, all would be good with the world. (Nevermind those pesky liberal blogs and fact-check organizations.) Unfortunately for Team Romney, there happen to be an awful lot of mainstream reporters today paying attention to the substance of Ryan's speech instead of the style...An awful lot of mainstream reporters more than a little ticked off that the campaign would dump such an egregious pack of lies into one speech, and expect the same fawning treatment the boy-wonder has so far received at their hands. In short, Ryan's speech may have just insured that the rest of the campaign is viewed with a more critical eye. Of course, this remains to be seen, but here's hoping.