Paul Ryan Wrote an Essay About the Greatness of Donald Trump

[n2doc]

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
APR 21, 2017
The annual Time magazine—Motto: Hey, y'all still around?—list of the 100 greatest humans is always good for a chuckle or two. If it's not praise heaped on awful people, it's celebrities trying actually to write something and falling flat on their syntaxes. This year's installment is better than most. The selections are by and large undeniable—I don't get Ed Sheeran, but that's just me. Some of the writer-subject match-ups are fascinating: Russell Crowe on Leslie Jones; John Cusack on Theo Epstein; Lin-Manuel Miranda, energy operating well past the red line as usual, on Riz Ahmed, and Pulitzer winner and former U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove on LeBron James.

But then you get to the entry on the president*, which is written by Speaker Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from the state of Wisconsin, and, whoops, there go the rails again.

A businessman always willing to challenge convention, he has shaken up Washington and laid out an agenda of generational proportions. Never afraid of a battle, he has made it his mission to fight for those who feel forgotten. Where others would pivot, he stays true to who he is. Where others would turn back, he forges ahead. Up close, I have found a driven, hands-on leader, with the potential to become a truly transformational American figure.

There are not two consecutive words in that paragraph that are remotely true. But, if I were a speaker whose party caucus is in open revolt, and I were writing about a president* who at the moment has to dial one-and-an-area-code to reach mere incompetence, this is the kind of thing I would write. Let's all watch them try to pass a healthcare bill again.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a54676/time-100-paul-ryan-trump/

[ProudLib72]

1. Fixed it

A conman always willing to challenge a lawsuit, he has terrified Washington and laid out an agenda of generational horror. Never afraid of a battle, he has made it his mission to fight everyone who slights him. Where others would let it slide, he stays true to who he is, a thin skinned bully. Where others would turn back, he blunders ahead. Up close, I have found him a putter with the potential to become a truly average American golfer.

[randome]

3. Perfect.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]I'm always right. When I'm wrong I admit it.
So then I'm right about being wrong.[/center][/font][hr]

[dweller]

4. bravo

submit it to Time rewrite staff

[Freethinker65]

8. You win the day! Thanks for the laugh

[ProudLib72]

10. What do I win?

If it's Bill O'Reilly on dvd, then I think I'll pass.

[spanone]

2. ryan is sooooo full of shit.

[Yavin4]

5. Republicans don't tear into their leaders like Democrats do.

Trump has been an utter disaster, but Republican leaders are quick to make him out to be the greatest president of all time. When Obama was in office trying to pull the country out of a complete meltdown, Dems never showed him this kind of love.

[smirkymonkey]

6. And this is the intellectual of the republican party?

Paul, even a raging narcisscist like Trump can see through that bullshit!

[hedda_foil]

7. This is writer-speak for no accomplishments to speak of and God knows what he'll do next.

It wasn't actually written by Ryan imo. It bears the marks of a professional wordsmith to me; one who has been told to write a positive piece but not flatter the idiot overly much.

[gratuitous]

9. This reads like a paean to Mao Zedong

At the conclusion of the Great Leap Forward, when the dimensions of the man-made catastrophe were becoming clearer, the party held a conference to go through some of the misery that had been inflicted on the populace. Party official after party official rose to denounce the bearers of bad news about famine, torture, murder, internal displacement, and the other privations the Chinese people had suffered. Then they began praising Chairman Mao, whose clear vision was the only standard by which to interpret reality. Any errors that had been committed were due solely to cadres who strayed from the words of the Chairman.

Paul Ryan would have been right at home there.

[WoonTars]

11. I think the vast majority of the gop in Washington would say the same thing....

....right up to the point that the impeachment starts...