Howard Kurtz says Rep. Paul Ryan’s “long paper trail” is a ticking time bomb and the press “won’t long be satisfied recounting his roots in Janesville, Wis., and how he went to work at McDonald’s at 16 after his father died. For all the hopeful chatter that Ryan’s selection could produce a serious and substantive election debate, the hyperspeed news cycle and relentless distortions of modern political campaigning will probably render that a fantasy.”
“Ryan may have energized the right — Rush Limbaugh and Rupert Murdoch appear ecstatic about his elevation — but the congressman has a long paper trail that could alienate moderate swing voters. If Newt Gingrich could assail Ryan’s Medicare plan as ‘right-wing social engineering,’ little wonder that the Obama team is salivating over the prospect of hanging the Ryan record around Romney’s neck.”
