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| Rep. Paul Ryan |
Mitt
Romney has moved the 2012 election for President into high grear and full
speed, as he announce Rep. Paul Ryan as his VP pick.
They
will appear together Saturday at 9:00am ET in Norfolk, Va., at the start of a
four-state bus tour to introduce the newly minted GOP ticket to the nation.
In
a statement issued Friday night, Romney's campaign would say only that the
running mate would be revealed at 9 a.m. EDT at the Nauticus Museum. Berthed at
the museum is the USS Wisconsin — which offered a hint about Romney's choice.
In
the final hours before Romney's team issued the statement, all signs seemed to
point to Ryan, the seven-term Wisconsin congressman whose nomination could help
assuage the conservative base of the party that has been reluctant to fully
embrace Romney.
On
Thursday, Romney fueled the buzz around Ryan, telling NBC that he wants a vice
president with "a vision for the country, which adds something to the
political discourse about the direction of the country."
Romney's
completion of the GOP ticket comes as he tries to repair an image damaged by
negative Democratic advertising and shift the trajectory of a campaign that's
seen him lose ground to President Barack Obama. The vice presidential selection
will dominate headlines, and Romney's team has been relentlessly teasing the
announcement for weeks.
Ryan,
42, is viewed by some in the Republican Party as a bridge between the
buttoned-up GOP establishment and a riled-up tea party movement that has never
warmed to Romney.
The
move also now links Romney directly with House Republicans, including
no-compromise tea partyers who have pressed for deep spending cuts. Obama has
been casting House Republicans as an impediment to progress in the
often-gridlocked Washington.
At
the same time, Ryan on the ticket could help Romney become more competitive in
Wisconsin, a state Obama won handily four years ago but that could be much
tighter this November.
Party
officials say Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has been
convinced for days that Romney had settled on Ryan, according to multiple
people who spoke with the chairman. Priebus, who, like Ryan, is from Wisconsin,
was expected to attend Saturday morning's announcement.
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| Paul Ryan & Mitt Romney |
The
pick in Rep. Paul Ryan will be a tough sell to the American people and the
independents that seek a balanced direction for the future of this country.
Ryan
is known his bold authorship of a major overhaul to Medicare, Social Security,
Social Entitlements, Medicaid, and Taxes. Ryan is just another rubber stamp for
the Tea Party and the Republican Party, and has not provided any bipartisan
leadership in congress as the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, since
Republicans took back control in 2010.
Romney's bus tour was expected to include appearances
with Portman, as well as two others who had been talked about as possible
contenders for running mate: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Florida Sen. Marco
Rubio.
The tour will take Romney through four must-win states
in as many days: North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and Ohio. All are
battlegrounds where Obama won in 2008. While Obama could afford to lose in one
or more of them and still reach the 270 electoral votes needed for another
term, Romney almost certainly needs all four to beat him.
