Chris Cillizza does a political winners and losers column periodically, and he’s revived it for the Republican National Convention. Last night’s winners were Susana Martinez, Condi Rice, Ron and Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, and Twitter. The losers were Tim Pawlenty, John Thune, interviews with delegates, and convention floor dancing. Here’s what Chris Cillizza had to say about the most dishonest speech ever delivered at a political convention.
* Paul Ryan: The Wisconsin congressman started very slowly – so slowly that we had begun to put him mentally into our “loser” category. He was halting in his delivery, stepping on applause lines and quotable lines alike. But about halfway through his speech, Ryan found his footing. He made the case against the Obama administration effectively – “They have no answer to this simple reality: We need to stop spending money we don’t have” – and argued just as effectively for Romney. He spoke eloquently about how he and Romney were of different faiths but, at their core, believed the same things. One other note: Ryan’s speech was the best written of any we’ve heard so far at the convention. It was packed with great lines, most of which – particularly in the second half of his speech – Ryan delivered well.
Not one mention of the fact that virtually nothing that Paul Ryan said was true.