Now some are going to see this as a partisan attack, and it isn't. I just thought it was amusing and it is a classic case of a misspeak, or in this case misremember. No harm, no foul.
I am probably taking this further into the depths of partisanship than you like, but I find this story to be interesting and possibly quite telling about Paul Ryan.
First, I have no idea if Ryan lied at the time or if he did not remember his actual time. In real life I give the benefit of the doubt and believe he did not mean to mislead anyone. The fact that he would knowingly lie with so people parsing his every word makes no sense.
For the sake of the rest of this post, on the other hand, I will believe that he knowingly lied.
Since Governor Romney chose Ryan to be his running mate the two most common ways to describe Ryan are he is in great shape and is an intellectual/policy wonk; there were also a lot of remarks about how honest he was as a politician and person. Republicans have been pushing this image of him hard.
After Ryan told Hewitt his best time he was impressed, and rightfully so. Ryan did nothing to dampen Hewitt's reaction, and instead only further bolstered it with his response of: "I was fast when I was younger, yeah." When one finds out Ryan's real time was in the lower third for the marathon he participated in the image of him of as a politician in great shape takes a hit, no matter how insignificant this interview was.
This is a strange tangent to take, but my other evidence is relating to the claims that Ryan is a great thinker/intellectual.
The New Republic recently wrote an article that analyzed his writings as a politician and found them severely lacking. The claims were that all his opinions are filtered from the analysis of others, and that most of his own analyses are rather shallow. In other words, he is that person who will use big words to appear smart when in fact the opposite is true.
The point of that story is Paul Ryan has an image to maintain. One that may not be true, but nonetheless he is willing to go to great lengths to protect in order to preserve his future ambitions. Now that he is the Vice Presidential candidate for the Republican Party, he is doing anything to preserve this created image. Even if it means knowingly lying in an interview such as this.
My final point is Paul Ryan has shown a willingness to twist the truth, if not outright lie, if it benefited him. This is another example that can be added to the list.
For reference, here is the
New Republic article:
Leon Wieseltier: His Grief, And Ours | The New Republic
To get a time under 3 hours, he would have needed to average 6:50 an mile for 26 miles. Highly unlikely, and he himself corrects it, and I thought this was the cool part:
There is really nothing that shocking about someone who is in shape like Paul Ryan, especially when he was younger, that would make me think it was impossible for him to run a sub-three hour marathon. Among politicians Michael Dukakis, John Edwards, and President George W. Bush are the fastest politicians, all running marathons with times between 3:30 and 3:45. Bush has the slowest time of the three, but he was also in his late 40s when he ran, which makes it even more impressive.
