As Paul Ryan got pumped up about the vice presidential debate, observers were distracted by his pumped-up biceps in photographs of the Republican running mate published hours before he was to square off against Joe Biden.
TIME magazine posted a series of pictures of the famously fit Ryan, wearing gym clothes and a backwards red baseball cap and curling a dumbbell.
The Wisconsin congressman, 42, is grinning at the camera in some of the pictures, and while his physique is impressive, the image is not exactly vice presidential.
A Ryan aide accused Time of “poor judgment” in releasing the photographs on the magazine’s website on the day of the debate, when Ryan and Vice President Biden were to face off on weightier issues like the state of the sluggish economy.
TIME said the photos were taken in late 2011 when Ryan was a finalist in the magazine’s Person of the Year issue. House Budget Committee chairman Ryan’s Herculean efforts to undertake budgetary reform inspired the workout theme for the shoot, it said.
The pictures sparked a surge of debate and attention on the web, particularly after conservative-leaning news aggregator The Drudge Report posted one of the photos and a link to the series on its home page.
Some conservatives made light of the images, and suggested they could give Ryan an advantage going into Thursday’s debate here.
“Well, at least we know Paul Ryan won’t be outgunned tonight,” Weekly Standard senior writer Mark Hemingway posted on Twitter, with a link to the pictures, followed by: “#heyohh!”
Gym pix of Paul Ryan spark pre-debate debate
