On CNN this afternoon, Paul Ryan got a chance to respond to the complaints that his well-delivered convention speech was filled with lies and distortions. On the topic of the GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin — which Ryan attacked Obama for failing to save, though it shut down under the Bush administration — Wolf Blitzer offered Ryan an opportunity to “revise and amend” his statements. Ryan retorted, “No, I don’t want to revise,” and went on to explain that it’s an example of Obama “making all these grand promises and then none of them occurring.”
In his speech, Ryan noted that during a campaign event at the plant, Obama said, “I believe that if our government is there to support you … this plant will be here for another hundred years.” Ryan said:
That’s what he said in 2008. Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.
Blizter noted that the announcement that the plant was shutting down came in June 2008, months before Obama was even elected. “Well, it’s still idle,” said Ryan. “This is the story of the Obama economy — a man running for president in 2008 making all these grand promises and then none of them occurring. He got elected. He put his policies in place and the plant still shut down.”
“I’m not saying it was his decision,” Ryan continued. “I’m saying he came and made these promises, makes these commitments, sells people on the notion that he’s got to do all these great achievements and then none of them occur. These are empty promises that become broken promises and that’s the story of the Obama economy.”
So Ryan didn’t mean to imply that the plant’s closure was the president’s fault, he’s just upset that Obama broke a promise that would have been physically impossible to keep, thanks to circumstances beyond his control.
