Finally, something the scribes understand!

THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 2012

Candidate Ryan’s wardrobe: Explaining Medicare is hard work! Luckily, some pursuits aren’t.

The Post’s Katherine Boyle is busy today, displaying the soul of the press corps:

BOYLE (8/16/12): On Saturday, Mitt Romney introduced his running mate, Paul Ryan, describing their shared ideals and shared vision for America.

The two, evidently, do not share a tailor.

Romney, with carefully rolled sleeves and an ice-blue tie, looked polished, the way presidential candidates often do.

But Ryan (Wis.) appeared rumpled, slightly sloppy for a vice-presidential candidate. As if he'd flown in hours before and mistakenly picked up someone else's suitcase. His pants sagged at his ankles. His starched, white shirt bunched at his stomach. His dark jacket drooped, better suited for a man of the cloth than a man on a presidential ticket.

“Perhaps his raw, slightly unkempt suit balances out Romney's snazzier, controlled appearance,” Boyle mused a bit later. “Ryan's Midwestern sensibilities and baggy pants may appeal to swing voters who think cuff links are wasteful expenditures.”

Who are these life-forms? Are they flesh of this earth? And no, we don’t want to single out Boyle.

This morning, in the New York Times, Cathy Horyn is thinking hard too:

HORYN (8/16/12): The idea of politicians deliberating over what message their clothing conveys enchants editors. They tend to overestimate the effects of a generic blazer or give too much credit to mysterious back-room handlers. It amounts to an idealization of the image-making process, a hoax. In truth, there are no real differences of style and message in the clothing of the current presidential candidates, which is too bad.

But one thing bugged me about Mr. Ryan's appearance on the day of the announcement in Virginia, on the symbolic deck of a battleship. He had on a blazer with an open-neck shirt and dark trousers; Mr. Romney was in his familiar shirt sleeves and a tie. Polished but relaxed. Yet if Mr. Ryan was chosen to bring youth and vigor and a kind of Ayn Rand boldness to the G.O.P., as the commentators kept saying, then his jacket was killing it.

So much for his lethal six-pack. He was swimming in his coat, like Tom Hanks in ''Big'' when he becomes a kid again.

Despite the literary reference, Journalist Horyn wasn’t finished. “I asked my colleague Bruce Pask, the men's fashion editor of T: The New York Times Style Magazine, for his thoughts on Mr. Ryan's sizing problem,” she wrote.

For the text of Pask’s thoughtful reply, you can just click here.

Our national culture has died to the world, although the corpse is still breathing. And yes, we refer to Rachel and Lawrence along with Horyn and Boyle.

This may be the election which seals our ruin. If not, it will be the next. You can’t survive with a culture like this.

Our IQ is dead to the world.