Paul Ryan’s biggest gaffes, lies and misstatements

When it comes to gaffes, Paul Ryan is no Joe Biden. But he has managed to develop a reputation as a “serial exaggerator,” typified by his claim that he had run a marathon in less than three hours. Here is a sampling of Ryan missteps:

An unbelievable marathon time

Paul Ryan is a sports-guy, but when he talked about his marathon-time from over 20 years ago he became a little over-ambitious. Ryan said, he took 2 hours 50-something minutes, which obviously is a very good time. However, the records told that his actual time was over 4 hours. He called his error an “honest mistake.” Watch, how he explains his gaffe on CBS.

Errors by the bushel at the Republican convention

Ryan’s speech at the RNC was a gift to fact-checkers. It was so full of lies that even FOX News stepped on the fact-check-train. According to them, Ryan’s speech “was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech.” To review his entire speech, click on the video below.

Take away tax shelters

Mitt Romney uses offshore tax shelters like the Cayman Islands. Paul Ryan might have forgotten that when he made the following proposal in the first interview together with Romney on Sixty Minutes: “What we’re saying is take away the tax shelters that are uniquely enjoyed by people in the top tax brackets so they can’t shelter as much money from taxation, should lower tax rates for everybody to make America more competitive.” Romney’s face turned a little shocked, as you can see in the video.

What about these tax loopholes?

The nation is puzzling over Romney/Ryan’s tax plan: they want to balance the tax cuts by reducing tax deductions and eliminating loopholes, but, in fact, they struggle when it comes to explaining which loopholes they will eliminate. Check out this Ryan interview with ABC News.

Showing some muscles

Whether this is a judgment error or a sign of political “strength” is in the eye of the beholder. Today, Time magazine published photos of Ryan in his training outfit and a baseball-cap lifting a huge hantel and demonstratively showing his biceps. The pictures were actually taken 10 months ago, when Ryan was nominated for Time’s “Person of the Year” lineup. As he didn’t make it the photos stayed unused — until now. With tonight’s debate nearing, Time decided to publish them.

Abrupt end of an interview

An interview between Ryan and a Michigan local ABC TV reporter ended with an argument. After the reporter asked a provocative question, Ryan responded, “those are your words, not mine.” Before he could continue, his spokesman interrupted. Watch for yourself!