Centrism, with a Bonus on Mendacity

Following up on yesterday's post, here's Krugman today making a similar point about the center as it relates to Paul Ryan.  Basically the point is that Ryan is seen by squishy centrists as one of the "reasonable" ones even though his policy proposals are breathtakingly radical not to mention completely unworkable (balancing budgets through magic asterisks, like saying he'll make up for the huge reduction in tax rates by closing unspecified loopholes in the tax code).

Why is Ryan seen this way when he's as radical as anyone on the Right?  Well, I think it's mostly a matter of style.  Romney benefits from this too- they're just not firebreathing personalities, a la Gingrich or Michele Bachman or Lindsay Graham.  I can understand why people look at them that way- they just seem nicer and more reasonable than the "radicals".

And they probably are nicer.  My guess is that Paul Ryan is calmer kinder than Newt Gingrich.  He's probably a good father, he probably doesn't cheat on his wife.  But his policies are unquestionably as radical as anything that Sarah Pailin stands for.  Pundits need to be smart enough to understand the difference between style and substance.  Paul Ryan is not a centrist.

As an extra bonus today, this compendium of lies by Mitt Romney in just one week is amazing.  His mendacity is just breathtaking in its scope.  Democrats have got to take him to task on this issue- after all, Al Gore was targeted by Republicans as a liar based on practically nothing outside of association with Bill Clinton.  But what's needed, of course, is for this meme to take hold outside of the world of MSNBC and Daily Kos.  If we had a press that wasn't completely cowed by right wingers attacking it for left wing bias, we might get that- I'm not optimistic.