I'm sorry, but I'm not seeing Ryan as a "big idea" guy, a super intelligent legislator and

[CTyankee]

a brilliant speaker, as he has been variously described by Republican pols and sympathizers. I think he is boring, dull and vacuous. As I listen to him speak, I hear a kind of drone to his voice and a well rehearsed tempo, trying to be dramatic and make his points, but falling flat.

Am I watching the same guy they're watching?

[Deep13]

1. me neither.

"Screw the poor" is neither novel nor original.

[tridim]

2. Agreed. He's going to be a gaffe machine too. He'll say shocking things.

[CTyankee]

4. Oh, I hope so! That would be lovely...

[Jim__]

3. A "big idea" guy that fell for Ayn Rand's horseshit? Please.

[unblock]

5. the phrase "a giant among midgets" comes to mind....

[Ikonoklast]

6. He's the best and brightest they got.

Which is kinda like saying he's the tallest citizen of Munchkin Land.

[EC]

7. Like Newt,

he's what THEY see as an intellectual. He can speak in circles making himself sound deep and thoughtful to them. Why? Because they cannot put together a complete thought in their heads, so nonsense sounds intellectual to them. Of course to anyone else it sounds like goobley-gok.

[CTyankee]

8. When you compare their "intellectuals" (I use the term loosely here) to ours, there is no

question that we have the firepower on our side. That is why they cannot really debate with our side. And then there is the creepiness factor...

[madokie]

9. spot on

[datasuspect]

10. he's a careerist "professional" with no depth of soul and sorely lacking in any humanity

[grantcart]

11. When your an ant a grape looks like a giant watermellon.

The reason that they are excited is that while Romney has not systemic ideological perspective and no core organizing political point of view (which the admit) Ryan does.

Now it doesn't matter that he is full of shit, that his arguments don't make any sense and that his notion of a brave idea is undermining the quality of life of poor people so that rich can add a redundant zero to their asset ledger.

Ryan gives all of the racists, bigots, and reactionaries SOME intellectual cover to be against Obama without showing their true colors. It doesn't matter how thin the gruel, simply the fact that there is something in the bowl is enough to say that they have food to serve.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

12. George W. Bush lowered the bar substantially....

If you can get out three sentences without drooling, you're now considered a "leading intellect" in the Republican Party.

[TheKentuckian]

13. He isn't but he is what passes for such on the other side

When you are the party of Louie Gohmert, Virginia Foxx, Boner, Dubya, McTurtle (operational hack, not a policy guy), Palin, and Bachmann then fuckwits like Thune, Corker, Coburn, Grassley, and Ryan can seem rather reasoned and wise.

Of course they are dull and vacuous but compared to the rest of them that is pretty brilliant and reasoned.

It only would follow that the likes of Gohmert would consider Ryan types geniuses as well, seeing they know they agree but cannot follow their "complex" multi-sentence ideas, which builds a unison within their caucus which translates immediately and without question to the corporate media.