From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Brushing aside tears and responding to raucous cheers, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan returned to Wisconsin on Sunday for an emotional homecoming in front of thousands of people on the grounds of the Waukesha County Expo Center.
“It’s good to be home,” Ryan said in a speech that wove personal history and national aspiration.
A day after he was named Mitt Romney’s running mate and vaulted on to the Republican Party’s biggest political stage, Ryan spoke of his family’s deep roots in Wisconsin and his ties to Janesville, where “we live on the block I grew up on.”
“My veins run with cheese, bratwurst, a little Spotted Cow, Leinie’s and some Miller,” he said. “I was raised on the Packers, Badgers, Bucks and Brewers.
“I like to hunt here, I like to fish here, I like to snowmobile here. I even think ice fishing is interesting. I’m a Wisconsinite through and through.”
Despite dark skies that threatened rain, the weather remained pleasant for the early evening appearances by Ryan and the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee, Romney. The sun peeked through clouds to light the stage during most of the 26 minutes of speeches by the newly minted Republican ticket.
In many ways, this was a Ryan family affair, the candidate saying hello to his mother, Betty, from the stage, while also speaking warmly about his wife, Janna, and children, Liza, Charles and Sam. He also joked that half the crowd was made up of the extended Ryan family.
Ryan saluted three other Wisconsin Republicans who have achieved national prominence: Gov. Scott Walker, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson.
“We’re just guys from Tosa, Kenosha, Oshkosh and Janesville,” Ryan said “What we learned in this state, just a little while ago, is that we want to elect men and women who run for office and tell us who they really are, what they really believe, what they’re really going to do, and when they get elected, they do that.
“That’s what we do here in Wisconsin.”
Ryan framed the fall campaign between the Republicans and Presi dent Barack Obama as a stark choice.
“Do we want that opportunity society, a safety net, a land of upward mobility, where people can make the most of their lives, where people can get ahead?” Ryan said. “Or, do we want to go down the path of debt, doubt and despair. Do we want to copy Europe? No.”
Ryan said, “We want to have the kind of an election where we earn your support, where we win an election because you said, ‘Go fix the mess in Washington.’ So when we win the election, we go fix this mess in Washington.”
Romney lauded his new running mate “as someone who is a leader . . . who has real character, who loves America,” before quickly stepping up the rhetoric against Obama.
“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,” Romney said.
He declared: “Mr. President, take your campaign out of the gutter and let’s talk about the real issues that America faces.”
Thousands also greeted Romney in North Carolina.
As for Obama getting his campaign out of the gutter, forget it. That’s how he rolls.
Romney actually looks like a viable candidate, especially with Ryan as his VP pick. The GOP base is exited and motivated. Hopefully, this will translate to a November victory.
Obama can’t run on his shitty record with a straight face, so he’s resorting to the same scare and blame tactics that resonate with the bottom feeders in his constituency.
He’s already started with Ryan.
November cannot come soon enough.
Related articles
- Romney and Ryan Light Up Wisconsin (powerlineblog.com)