What Paul Ryan and ‘shirtless’ have in common
In the space of the past 24 hours, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan went from an unknown to a figure of intense curiosity.
What did that curiosity center on? Well, of course, the fact that he was chosen by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney on Saturday to be the Republican vice presidential nominee. And, what he looked like without a shirt on. Not kidding.
According to the good people at Google, the most common search term tied to Ryan was “vice president”. The second most common was “shirtless”.
Some context helps explain the massive interest in seeing Ryan in a stage of undress. He is a workout fanatic and an acolyte of P90X, the rigorous core training regimen that has come into vogue in recent years. (The Fix, on the other hand, owns the P90X DVDs, which are resting comfortably in their sleeves in the basement at the moment.) Ryan is also a former personal trainer who prides himself on keeping his body fat in single digits. (Make sure to read this great Maeve Reston story in the L.A. Times on Ryan’s workout habits.)
That the desire to see Ryan half-naked trumped other things like, say, his budget proposal (“budget” was the fourth most common search term connected to Ryan, right behind “wiki”) tells you all you need to know about how the average person consumes politics.
Rather than engage in a deep examination of Ryan’s policies and what he would do if he was elected to be the second most powerful person in the country, people wanted to see what he looked like with his shirt off.
Ah, America.
- Spam
- Obscene
- Duplicate
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Chris Cillizza
Chris Cillizza is founder and editor of The Fix, a leading blog on state and national politics. He is the author of The Gospel According to the Fix: An Insider’s Guide to a Less than Holy World of Politics and an MSNBC contributor and political analyst. He also regularly appears on NBC and NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show. He joined The Post in 2005 and was named one of the top 50 journalists by Washingtonian in 2009.
Juliet Eilperin
Juliet Eilperin covers the White House for the Washington Post. She served as the Post's House of Representatives reporter from 1998-2004, covering the impeachment of Bill Clinton, lobbying, legislation, and five national congressional campaigns. Since 2004 she has been one of the country’s leading reporters covering the environment, reporting on science, policy and politics in areas including climate change, oceans, and air quality. She is the author of two books, "Fight Club Politics: How Partisanship is Poisoning the House of Representatives," and "Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks." Follow her on Twitter.
Ed O’Keefe
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Aaron Blake covers national politics at the Washington Post, where he writes regularly for “The Fix,” the Post’s top political blog. A Minnesota native and summa cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota, Aaron has also written about politics for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and The Hill newspaper. Aaron and his wife, Danielle, live in Annandale, Va. Follow him on Twitter.
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Scott Clement
Scott Clement is a survey research analyst for Capital Insight, the independent polling group of Washington Post Media. Scott specializes in public opinion about politics, election campaigns and public policy. He helps design and analyze all Washington Post polls, including the Washington Post-ABC News poll. Follow Scott on Twitter.
Rachel Weiner
Rachel Weiner covers national politics for Post Politics and The Fix. She came to the Washington Post in 2010 as a political web editor and anchored the Post's 2012 election blog. She was previously a web editor at The Huffington Post. Follow her on Twitter.
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