Did conservative voters read about, or even hear about, Paul Ryan's Lies? Media coverage was there...

What should be noted about Paul Ryan’s VP acceptance speech is the national dialogue about campaign lying and why Ryan thought he could get away with it. This was no small feat.

And yes, I'm weary of reading about about how Ryan lied. But for the record, here's my choice of analysis. 

From a guy who’s written a book entitled "Live from the Campaign Trail: The Greatest Presidential Campaign Speeches of the 20th Century and How They Shaped Modern America," I would give Michael Cohen bit more credit than your run of the mill political pundit. He’s even a fellow at the nonpartisan Century Foundation. Having said that, I thought his take on the Ryan's lies were worth reposting (edited for space).

NY Daily News: Yes, Paul Ryan lied, and yes, it matters!

His acceptance speech on Wednesday night was one of the most dishonest political speeches in recent U.S. political history.  While some like Ben Smith at BuzzFeed call Ryan’s flights of factual fancy "policy differences" with President Obama, this misunderstands what actually is a policy difference and what is a lie – and why Ryan’s incessant lying, including about marathon times, is actually pretty important.

1. Ryan claimed that President Obama’s stimulus measure was not only the "the largest one-time expenditure ever by our federal government," it was "a case of political patronage, corporate welfare, and cronyism at their worst. You, the working men and women of this country, were cut out of the deal." Now one can believe that the stimulus was big government run amok, as Ryan clearly does, but his characterization of the stimulus is simply false. The stimulus measure created 2.5 million jobs and, more important, cut taxes for 95% of Americans. It was also highly transparent and virtually fraud-free. It wasn’t the biggest one time expenditure – that would be World War II.

2. Ryan said that Obama’s "first order of economic business" was health-care reform. This is quite obviously not true. The derided stimulus bill passed within a few weeks of Obama taking office, health care a year later. Of course, Ryan’s claim that Obamacare "put the federal government in charge of health care" is an oft-repeated charge that is also a lie.

3. In addition, Ryan has also asserted that Obamacare raises taxes on "millions of small businesses." This is pants on fire untrue. In most cases, Obamacare provides small business with a tax cut.

4. On Medicare, Ryan’s assertion that the President took "$716 billion" and “funneled [it] out of Medicare” is belied by the fact that many of the cuts to Medicare went back into the program, for example filling the so-called "donut hole" in Medicare Part D.  It also ignores the fact that Ryan supported the exact same reductions before he conveniently changed his mind, though in his case the savings would have primarily funded tax cuts primarily benefiting the wealthy.

5. On the national debt, Ryan claimed that "by his own decisions," President Obama has added "$5 trillion in new debt." But of course this is only true if you believe history began the day Obama was inaugurated. Indeed, the vast majority of debt expansion over the past three-and-a-half years are from policies enacted under President Bush – things like the Bush tax cuts, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, all of which were supported by Ryan. The debt has increased under Obama’s watch. This is unquestionably true. But it’s simply false to say this is primarily a result of Obama’s decisions.

6. In addition, Ryan said that Obama "created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report.  He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing." This is a lie on a number of levels. First, the commission never issued an urgent report or made any recommendations to Obama – because the group’s final report was rejected by the balance of its commissioners, including Paul Ryan.  But it’s certainly one of the most extraordinary, even Orwellian, sins of omission one will ever see.

7. Lastly, there is Ryan’s argument that Obama "did nothing" to deal with the national debt. Here is the President’s proposal for long-term debt reduction sent to Congress in the fall of 2011 – and here’s the report’s crucial paragraph:

"I am sending to the Congress this detailed plan to pay for this jobs bill and realize more than $3 trillion in net deficit reduction over the next 10 years. Combined with the approximately  $1 trillion in savings from the first part of the Budget Control Act, this would generate more than  $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade. This would bring the nation to the point where current spending is no longer adding to our debt and where our debt is no longer increasing as a share of our economy — an important milestone on the way to restoring fiscal discipline and moving us toward balance."

Now one may believe this is a lousy plan or that it won’t work or that it’s not serious. But to say that Obama has done nothing to deal with the debt issue is simply to deny reality.
There are also the inaccuracies like blaming the country’s debt downgrade on the President even though it was, according to Standard & Poor, largely the result of congressional gridlock and in particular a refusal to raise taxes (Republican), Or the implication in Ryan’s speech that Obama was responsible for a GM plant closing in Ryan’s home district even though the closure was set in motion before Obama even took office.

And this is just one speech! This isn’t even counting the Romney campaign’s more egregious lie – namely that President Obama’s granting of welfare waivers to states, a waiver requested by Republican governors, represents a "gutting" of welfare-work requirements. It’s pretty hard to imagine a situation in which that pattern of lying isn’t a relevant political issue.