UPDATE: Simon's post is evidently supposed to be satire. From what I can tell, the Robinson quote is real, but the rest is Simon trying to be The Onion. Uh-huh. Sorry, Roger. You're not The Onion. In my defense, everyone from Lawrence O'Donnell to Gawker to Paul Krugman believed it was real, too. You know, because it was on a site that purports itself to be serious. So, naturally, people took it seriously. I think it's safe to assume that Politico, when it prints quotes from "unnamed sources" and the like, won't be cited as a reliable source any more.
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Politico's Roger Simon appears to have written the article of the week. It begins with this:
“I hate to say this, but if Ryan wants to run for national office again, he’ll probably have to wash the stench of Romney off of him,” Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Republican Party of Iowa, told The New York Times on Sunday.
And ends with this about Paul Ryan's sudden use of Powerpoint on the stump:
Ryan’s PowerPoint slides were officially labeled: “Our Unsustainable Debt (U.S. Debt Held by Public as a Share of Economy),” “Your Share of the Debt,” “Who Funds Our Reckless Spending?” and “How the Government Spends Your Money.”
The Romney campaign was furious. But Ryan reportedly said, “Let Ryan be Ryan and let the Stench be the Stench.”
Once again, Romney must've opened the windows on his airplane because the vessel is losing pressure and appears to be going down.
Oh, and this was the final line of Simon's post:
Ryan Fever. Catch it!
Perhaps someone's reading this blog.