Old, Evil, or Stupid

For an ideology that prides itself on its love of “nuance,” as Jim Geraghty writes, Old Media’s criticisms of the right all boil down to three flavors:

In the coming days, weeks and months, we will see the entirety of the Democratic Party and its allies hell-bent on ensuring that those who don’t follow the news learn to hate Paul Ryan.

In the national media narrative – perhaps best illustrated by the shorthand of Jay Leno’s monologue, which presumes that the audience has the barest-bone familiarity with national figures – every Republican figure is reduced to one of three things: Old, stupid, or evil.

George H.W. Bush: Old. Dan Quayle: Stupid. Newt Gingrich: Evil. Pat Buchanan: Evil. Bob Dole: Old. George W. Bush: Stupid. Dick Cheney: Old and evil. John McCain: Old. Sarah Palin: Stupid.

As Jim writes, “The portrait coming from the Left may take hold, or it may not. But one thing that is clear is that it is predictable. It is predictable because it is not based upon some revealing truth or the genuine character or ideas of Ryan; it is based upon the needs of the Democratic Party at this moment.”

Of course it’s predictable. Unfortunately, what’s also predictable is that the GOP will likely be unprepared for the onslaught to come. Fortunately though, as Jonathan S. Tobin writes today at Commentary, “Liberal Surprise: Ryan Can’t Be Palin-ized.”

Presumably he’ll be made to be evil then — though that case may be made more difficult when there’s clips such as this to push back: “Erskine Bowles, the Democratic co-chair of the Obama Commission on Fiscal Responsibility, praising Paul Ryan and his budget plan during a lecture at the University of North Carolina last September.”

Related: “Liberal Wyden’s partnership with Ryan becomes a GOP talking point,” much to the Washington Post’s chagrin.

Update: Presumably, Evil will be the smear of choice to attack Ryan, given that “David Brock Releases 290 Page Opposition Research Dump On Ryan; Media Now Has Its Talking Points.”

Of course, as the above clip by the MRC highlights, the MSM was in this business long before they ceded their opposition research to Media Matters. Clip via Jim Treacher, who writes, “Don’t take it personally, Paul Ryan, they always do this.”