After being selected by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney as his vice presidential running mate , Paul Ryan made an emotional homecoming as he and Romney arrived in Wisconsin to a roaring throng.
The two made their dramatic entrance on stage in front of a crowd around 8,000 people to theme song of blockbuster thriller, “Air Force One.” Ryan addressed the audience as he wiped away tears.
“I’m a Wisconsinite through and through,” he said. “My veins run with cheese, bratwurst, a little Spotted Cow. . . and some Millers. I like to hunt here, I like to fish here, to snowmobile here. I even think ice fishing is interesting.”
Though the election on Nov. 6 is more than two months away, the atmosphere of this celebratory event mirrored that of a late October rally.
It showed that with the selection of Romney’s running mate, the race for the White House has been infused with a fresh vigor.
“You saw the response of our crowds, very excited to meet Paul Ryan to get to lnow him,” Romney saidf to CNN. “A lot of them know him pretty well by virtue of things he’s been fighting for, but it just means one more person to drive a very strong message.”
While praising Ryan, Romney also used the stage as an opportunity to go after his competition. After a heckler attempted to disrupt the event, Romney released frustrations toward the Obama campaign over a television ad produced by a pro-Obama group that virtually suggested that Romney shared some of the blame for the death of the wife of a steelworker, who lost his job and health insurance when Romney’s company, Bain Capital, bought the company. Romney believes that the Obama team has overstepped its boundary.
“There’s no question but if you follow the campaign of Barack Obama, he’s going to do everything in his power to make this the lowest, meanest negative campaign in history. We’re not going to let that happen. This is going to be a campaign about ideas about the future of America,” Romney said angrily.
“Mr. President, take your campaign out the gutter,” he said. “Let’s talk about the real issues.”
That’s something that Romney will have to do within his own potential cabinet as he deals with Ryan’s extensive budget plan. Many senior voters may draw issues with Ryan’s controversial budget plan where he seeks to replace the guaranteed benefit that is now in place with a system that would give vouchers to recipients to pay for health insurance.
