TAMPA, Fla. – Rep. Paul D. Ryan assumed a new place on the world and national stage Wednesday night by “accepting the calling of my generation” to return the nation to economic stability “and get this country working again.”
The Wisconsin congressman outlined the fiscally hawkish views that propelled him to become Mitt Romney’s choice for vice president, railing against “Obamacare,” President Obama’s stimulus package and unemployment.
“I accept the duty to help lead our nation out of a jobs crisis and back to prosperity,” he said, “and I know we can do this.”
Ryan wasted no time in accepting the traditional assignment of campaign “attack dog,” bringing the Republican National Convention crowd in the Tampa Bay Times Forum to its feet by declaring “what is missing is leadership in the White House.”
“So our opponents can consider themselves on notice,” he said. “In this election, on this issue, the usual posturing on the left isn’t going to work. Mitt Romney and I know the difference between protecting a program and raiding it. Ladies and gentlemen, our nation needs this debate. We want this debate. We will win this debate.”
He also launched into his signature issues of Medicare and health care, promising that a Romney administration would not duck tackling tough issues he said have been ignored by Obama.
“In Congress, when they take out the heavy books and wall charts about Medicare, my thoughts go back to a house on Garfield Street in Janesville,” he said. “My wonderful grandma, Janet, had Alzheimer’s and moved in with Mom and me. Though she felt lost at times, we did all the little things that made her feel loved.
“We had help from Medicare, and it was there, just like it’s there for my mom today,” he continued. “Medicare is a promise, and we will honor it. A Romney-Ryan administration will protect and strengthen Medicare, for my mom’s generation, for my generation, and for my kids and yours.”
A onetime disciple of the late Buffalo congressman and 1996 GOP vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp, Ryan cited Kemp’s reputation for optimism as a guiding principle for him and Romney.
“I learned a good deal about economics and about America from the author of the Reagan tax reforms, the great Jack Kemp,” he said. “What gave Jack that incredible enthusiasm was his belief of possibilities of free people in the power of free enterprise and strong communities to overcome poverty and despair. We need that same optimism right now.”
But he also provided a hint of what will be heard on the campaign trail for months to come.
“After four years of getting the runaround, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is Gov. Mitt Romney,” the Wisconsin lawmaker said.
Romney will help America “meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words,” he added.
Throughout Wednesday’s proceedings, the party paid homage to its past at it quadrennial gathering, with a video honoring former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, appearing together at the family retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine. The two former presidents praised each other’s service, with the elder Bush citing “integrity” as his son’s greatest attribute, and the younger praising his father’s “vision, strategy and calm nerves.”
“Dad and I know what it takes to be president,” Bush the younger said, “and there is no doubt in our minds that Mitt Romney will be a great president.”
But the GOP scheduled some of brightest luminaries to disseminate the Romney-Ryan message in a Wednesday session tagged with a “We Can Build It” theme. They included former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who along with Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, criticized what they called a lack of leadership in foreign affairs.
While faulting the nation’s failure to seek fair trade polices with China, Rice said the world is asking: “Where does America stand?”
“We do not have a choice,” she said. “We will not be reluctant to lead and you cannot lead from behind,” she said to cheers.
But she also embraced the education issue, railing against policies she said have failed, especially for minorities.
“This is the civil rights issue of our time,” Rice said, generating even more cheers by recounting her own story of rising from segregated Birmingham, Ala., to become secretary of state.
McCain received a rousing ovation from the packed arena.
“I had hopes once of addressing you under different circumstances. But our fellow Americans had another plan four years ago, and I accept their decision,” he said. “I’ve been blessed for so long to play a role in our nation’s affairs that I’m conscious only of the debt I owe America, and I thank you for the honor.”
McCain echoed many of the themes of his 2008 campaign against Obama, adding more to his list in the ensuing four years. “It is said this election will turn on domestic and economic issues,” he said. “But what Mitt Romney knows, and what we know, is that our success at home also depends on our leadership in the world.”
He sounded familiar GOP criticism of Obama’s withdrawal timetable from Afghanistan, $1 trillion in military spending cuts, alleged ignorance of human rights violations in Iran, and a refusal to intervene in the situation in Syria.
He said Romney will reassert U.S. leadership in world affairs, leading “from the front, not behind.”
“I trust him to know that if America doesn’t lead, our adversaries will, and the world will grow darker, poorer and much more dangerous,” McCain said. “I trust him to know that an American president always, always, always stands up for the rights, and freedoms, and justice of all people.”
Another onetime presidential candidate, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, joined in some of the familiar criticisms of Obama during his remarks.
“Let me clear the air about whether guys like me would only support an evangelical,” he said. “Of the four people on the two tickets, the only self-professed evangelical is Barack Obama, and he supports changing the definition of marriage, believes that human life is disposable and expendable at any time in the womb or even beyond the womb, and tells people of faith that they must bow their knees to the god of government and violate their faith and conscience in order to comply with what he calls health care.”
As was the case at Tuesday’s convention session, speaker after speaker assumed their own attack modes, castigating him for presiding over an economy they claim he promised to fix. One of those was Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, who said that “the big government bureaucrats of the Obama administration have set their sights on our way of life.”
“Instead of preserving family farms and ranches, President Obama’s policies are effectively regulating them out of business,” Thune said. “Folks, we won’t be in this situation with Mitt Romney in the White House.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky served as another major speaker, excoriating the president for “lowering America’s expectations, not raising them,” for “running from the nation’s problems,” and for managing the nation’s “decline.”
He also accused Obama of leading the United States toward the sort of European-style governments now teetering on the economic brink.
“What this administration has in mind for America isn’t a renewal, it’s a great leveling out,” he said.
“It wants the kind of government-imposed equality that in a single generation transformed Western Europe from a place where for centuries high achievement and discovery and innovation were celebrated and prized, to a place where they have elections about whether people should have to work.”
Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who waged a spirited campaign for the GOP nomination and has said he will endorse nobody in the fall election, was not given a speaking slot at the convention. But a short video summed up his libertarian philosophies, much to the delight of his many vocal supporters here.
Democrats pushed back hard against Ryan, whose budget proposal would dramatically cut many domestic programs and partially privatize Medicare.
Obama’s re-election campaign released a web video calling Ryan a product of a “bygone era,” and spokeswoman Jen Psaki took note of polls showing both Romney and Ryan having relatively low ratings on personal popularity.
She called Romney and Ryan “the two most unpopular presidential nominees and vice presidential nominees in modern history” and added: “They have two days to rebrand who they are, what they stand for.”
News wire services contributed to this report.
