Paul Ryan may not have lied, but did he deliberately mislead?

Paul Ryan did not technically lie about GM's SUV factory in Janesville. The statements he made were factually accurate. But there’s a difference between correct facts and true honesty. Paul Ryan’s speech seemed awfully misleading.

That disappointed me. I had respected him. Would he really twist the truth? I needed to figure that out. I read the details about the GM plant.  I read the entire speech that candidate Obama gave at Janesville in 2008.

Did Obama promise to keep the plant open? Didn’t he realize it would be closed before he took office? Did Paul Ryan take one sentence out of context to make a sleazy point?

Obama did not promise to keep the plant open. After honoring the plant’s nearly century-long history, he admitted it shut down temporarily during the Depression. He acknowledged how many times they changed what they manufactured to meet changing demand.

He described how Manitowoc, WI, lost a factory but gained two green energy companies that cut their unemployment in half.  He complimented the GM workers on how many hybrids and fuel-efficient vehicles they were producing. Then came the all-important comments to which Paul Ryan referred.

And I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another hundred years. The question is not whether a clean energy economy is in our future, it’s where it will thrive. I want it to thrive right here in the United States of America; right here in Wisconsin; and that’s the future I’ll fight for as your President. 

My energy plan will invest $150 billion over ten years to establish a green energy sector that will create up to 5 million new jobs over the next two decades – jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. We’ll also provide funding to help manufacturers convert to green technology and help workers learn the skills they need for these jobs.

Candidate Obama implied that with the government’s help, they could transform the plant into a factory that produced something more energy efficient than SUVs. He did not specifically promise this. He did not break his promise. But the people of Janesville were rightly disappointed when the factory stood empty for Obama’s full first term as president. And Paul Ryan was not being dishonest when he mentioned their disappointment in his speech.