# Paul Ryan vs The Stench (Romney campaign melting down internally) \[satire warning\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 26, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-ryan-vs-the-stench-romney-campaign-melting-down-internally-satire-warning/635842 "2012-09-26T01:21:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-ryan-vs-the-stench-romney-campaign-melting-down-internally-satire-warning/635842/81 "2012-09-26T20:12:46Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Is this a late addition to the article or something? Yes. It was added sometime earlier today, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![BDBoop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@BDBoop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BDBoop)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-ryan-vs-the-stench-romney-campaign-melting-down-internally-satire-warning/635842/82 "2012-09-26T20:20:35Z")
> [@AnalogSignal](#): > > The real stench is [Politico.com](http://Politico.com). No, that’d be Fox Propaganda Network. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-ryan-vs-the-stench-romney-campaign-melting-down-internally-satire-warning/635842/83 "2012-09-26T20:37:24Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Yes. It was added sometime earlier today, I believe. So, comparing himself to Swift and Orwell— that’s still satire, right? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-ryan-vs-the-stench-romney-campaign-melting-down-internally-satire-warning/635842/84 "2012-09-26T20:38:41Z")
It really is a problem when people can’t tell what’s satire because the reality looks so much like satire itself. Or even odder. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-ryan-vs-the-stench-romney-campaign-melting-down-internally-satire-warning/635842/85 "2012-09-26T20:43:45Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > I’m surprised anyone was taking this seriously. Was it really not obvious that he was riffing on that quote from the _Times_? Well, Lawrence O’Donnell seemed to assume it was factual on his show last night. Guess he’ll be making a somewhat embarrassed correction tonight. Good; I find him a pompous, annoying git anyway. Still, a rather clumsy attempt at satire if you ask me, and I know you didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-ryan-vs-the-stench-romney-campaign-melting-down-internally-satire-warning/635842/86 "2012-09-26T20:45:43Z")
I’m sure that note was put up because conservatives around the country are screaming for the writer’s and editor’s heads. If you google Ryan + stench you can see there were more than 10,000 mentions in the last 24 hours. This story got a shitload of traction because much of the press either didn’t recognize the satire, chose not to recognize it, or threw in their own satire riff on top. Another news cycle down the drain for Romney. At least this time, it wasn’t his own foot in his mouth. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-ryan-vs-the-stench-romney-campaign-melting-down-internally-satire-warning/635842/87 "2012-09-26T20:45:52Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Guess he’ll be making a somewhat embarrassed correction tonight. Good; I find him a pompous, annoying git anyway. Judging by the quote in post 80, he’s choosing to act pompous and annoying instead of embarrassed. The point of satire is to put something forth in your writing that would never happen in reality. All he did was crack wise. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-ryan-vs-the-stench-romney-campaign-melting-down-internally-satire-warning/635842/88 "2012-09-26T21:08:57Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > Judging by the quote in post 80, he’s choosing to act pompous and annoying instead of embarrassed. > > The point of satire is to put something forth in your writing that would never happen in reality. All he did was crack wise. Well yes - that is why the piece was not, in fact, satire. It was IMO, Roger Simon taking some known facts, and writing a smart-ass piece. Really, everything in there was factual, except for the part about Ryan calling Romney “Stench” (and I think he probably did, but in private, to his staffers, as a joke) Simon’s piece was not really that funny - but it cannot be defined as “satire” ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-ryan-vs-the-stench-romney-campaign-melting-down-internally-satire-warning/635842/89 "2012-09-26T21:10:56Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Really, everything in there was factual, except for the part about Ryan calling Romney “Stench” (and I think he probably did, but in private, to his staffers, as a joke) Not to put too fine a point on it, but _that part was made up and did not happen._ I agree it’s not well executed as a humor piece. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-ryan-vs-the-stench-romney-campaign-melting-down-internally-satire-warning/635842/90 "2012-09-26T21:14:59Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Not to put too fine a point on it, but _that part was made up and did not happen._ I agree it’s not well executed as a humor piece. Next you’ll tell me that Powerpoint was not invented to humanely kill cattle… ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-ryan-vs-the-stench-romney-campaign-melting-down-internally-satire-warning/635842/91 "2012-09-26T21:18:35Z")
> [@Untoward\_Parable](#): > > Politico doesn’t do satire do they? I mean not without it being obvious. This isn’t the Onion. (A brain trust, rumor has it, that refers to Ryan as “Gilligan.”) [Author’s note: Jonathan Swift did not really want Irish people to sell their children for food in 1729; George Orwell did not really want the clocks to strike thirteen in 1984; Paul Ryan, I am sure, calls Mitt Romney something more dignified than “Stench” and Microsoft did not invent PowerPoint as a means to euthanize cattle. At least I am pretty sure Microsoft didn’t.] Roger Simon is POLITICO’s chief political columnist. Read more: [http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81618\_Page2.html#ixzz27c4DcBSL](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81618_Page2.html#ixzz27c4DcBSL) ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-ryan-vs-the-stench-romney-campaign-melting-down-internally-satire-warning/635842/92 "2012-09-26T21:22:35Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Next you’ll tell me that Powerpoint was not invented to humanely kill cattle… No, not humanely. I do like the Gilligan comment. It has become pretty clear that Ryan isn’t the intellectual powerhouse everyone thought he was going to be. It turns out he is just an ideologue, a consistent ideologue but little more than that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-ryan-vs-the-stench-romney-campaign-melting-down-internally-satire-warning/635842.md?page=4)