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Subscribe to RSSJANESVILLE, WI -- Paul Ryan's sendoff to the Republican convention on Monday was mostly a family affair, as a well-wisher brought a photo of Ryan's late father to a farewell rally.
Alex Moe/NBC News
David Green (middle), shows off photo he brought of the bowling team from the 1960s with Paul Ryan's father, Paul Murray Ryan (far right).
“That’s my dad,” Paul Ryan exclaimed as he took the black-and-white photo from a man in the crowd.
“That’s my dad’s bowling league. Look at that. That’s my dad right there,” Ryan said and eventually handed the photograph to a staffer: “Be careful with that.”
Longtime family friend, 87-year-old David Green, brought the photo of the late Paul Murray Ryan, taken back in the 1960s, to show his son, who could be the next vice president of the United States.
Memories like this were shared all morning Monday.
The seven-term Wisconsin congressman, Paul Davis Ryan, has never forgotten his roots and today, the family man returned to the small Wisconsin town he has called home for the past 42-years to say thank you.
“Hello, Janesville. It's good to be home,” an emotional Ryan told the crowd inside his former high school’s gymnasium a few blocks from his home here. “I want to thank our neighbors on Courthouse Hill for indulging all of this and for their patience. We really appreciate that.”
(A security perimeter of several blocks has recently been put up around Ryan’s home.]
He continued: “And I want to thank everybody in the broader community. Thank you. I know this has put a lot in Janesville, and I want to thank you, and I want to just tell you how proud I am to come from Janesville, Wisconsin.”
Just two days before the biggest speech of his life, the presumptive GOP vice presidential nominee returned to the town where he was born and raised – and is currently raising his family – for a send-off rally before flying to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, FL.
The congressman was joined by his wife, Janna, and three children: Liza, Charlie, and Same (who wore a Romney-Ryan cheesehead), for the first time since the weekend he was tapped as Mitt Romney’s VP.
“Life has changed since I last saw you,” Janna said on the ropeline and was even given a bumper sticker by an attendee that read: “Romney Ryan and ME!”
“I love it! I love it!” she exclaimed.
Ryan’s mother, Betty, and brother, Tobin, were also in attendance at the rally inside Joseph A. Craig High School.
“It’s -- I don’t have words for it,” Ryan said when asked what it was like to be a rockstar here in his town.
And many in the crowd had very fond memories of Ryan throughout the years.
Family friend, Julie Lyons, wearing a “Team Janna” homemade t-shirt to support the family behind the politician, recalled how “normal” Ryan is and how he just liked to be “one of the kids.”
"We have traveled with them [The Ryan’s] to different places," Lyons said, who has twins the same age as Ryan’s 10-year-old daughter. “I’d say all the parents, including Paul, are always very involved in the kids activities and whether it is riding paddle boats or fishing or cookouts, he is one of the kids."
And Mary Kanavas, whose husband was in the Wisconsin State Assembly and knows the Ryan’s, says no one loves their hometown as much as Ryan.
“There are many people that are from many places in the world but Ryan eats it, breathes it, sleeps it, walks it -- he loves this town and I think that is what people are so excited about,” she said. “He is an honest to God child of Janesville and I think he will make them very proud.”
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Well, that is actually a pretty nice story on Paul Ryan. Especially the excitement of seeing his dad's old bowling league photo.
But, I suppose, yout Libs here will somehow mangage to turn it into something nasty.
You always do.
Well, I am not surprised it was a family affair since most people in Janesville have a very negative opinion of Eddie MUNSTER.
4 more 4 44
Obama/Biden 2012
Ryan is a social extremist bar none.
Ryan voted against equal pay for equal work for women.
Ryan co-sponsored 3 dozen anti-abortion bills (with no reprieve for rape/incest) - many more than Todd Akin, who he is trying to make go away.
Ryan would end Planned Parenthood, ban same-sex marriage and repeal DADT.
Ryan even voted against hate crime protections.
He has voted against background checks for guns purchased at gun shows.
While playing the deficit wonk, his budget would put $10 Trillion on the deficit.
Paul Ryan is lying like no tomorrow around this nation regarding Medicare, Welfare/work laws, etc.
Nuns, priests and the Pope are hounding him for his cruel, aggregious budget that hurts low-income, seniors and poor, calling it 'immoral".
Janesville can 'ave 'im.
Thanks White Collar. I consider that high praise coming from someone like you, and it is a tacit nod to our creativity.
Bev, why are you such a racist?
♥ a true hallmark moment for you WCA, cherish it.
But, but Ryan hasn't spent any time there, never actually WORKED for a living, received nothing but GOVERNMENT PAYCHECKS. essentially he isa an unkown there
Ryan's past that could be of interest to the national debate. He noted ties to a Kenosha businessman, Dennis Troha, who pled guilty in 2007 to illegal campaign contributions to the Wisconsin Democratic Party and to President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign. Troha had funneled donations to those campaign committees through family members. Troha and his family and associates had also given more than $58,000 to Ryan's campaigns over several years.
Ryan donated the Troha contributions to his campaign to charity in the wake of the scandal according to the Journal Sentinel.
"People will look into the connection with his father-in-law who is pretty heavily into natural gas and several people have raised the issue of fracking and his support of that," Bice said about Daniel Little, Ryan's father-in-law, who owns interests in four companies that lease land for mining and drilling by energy companies.
Where is Norman Rockwell when you need him..?
OK WCA, unlike the clown at the top of the ticket, I actually believe that Ryan is a nice guy and who is well respected personally by colleagues on both sides of the aisle. His policy ideas are another story entirely.
RedSux
Bev, why are you such a racist?
RedSux
What is racist about calling Ryan Eddie MUNSTER; moron? Is it because Eddie MUNSTER wears Black clothes?
Red Sux,
You sure work hard at being an a-hole. Nice to see someone like you perfecting their craft.
WCA look at the vile sewer rats now. Civility LOL. nothing civil with a far left liberal savage. oh well, like an appendix liberals have a place in existence. Just let me know someone figures it out.
Caesar Augustus-
WCA look at the vile sewer rats now. Civility LOL. nothing civil with a far left liberal savage. oh well, like an appendix liberals have a place in existence. Just let me know someone figures it out.
Try you righties mouths; since you want to go there.
4 more 4 44
Obama/Biden 2012
what is with you lefty liberals and sexual depravity. Look at GOPextinct and his beastiality avatar. Bev the transgender wanting to stick its appendage in anothers mouth. Seek help
WhiteCollarAuto: Because Americans NEED Another Cupholder
Yeah, liberals are a bunch of mean people. I remember being picked on by liberals all the time in high school. Why I even saw a bunch of liberals gang up on a kid who was " different", hold him down and cut his bleached hair.
Yeah, liberals are always the mean ones. If it's not trying to take peoples' guns away, it's trying to make other people agree to give everyone equal Constitutional rights...
what constitutional rights dont you have again? aside from that spot on
Feisty - I understand that, while Ryan is gone, they are moving the town of Janesville, hoping Ryan won't find them when he returns!
Obama/Biden 2012
Liberals are too chicken sh!t to do anything on their own.Too braindead to motivate themselves.
They thrive in the mob situation.
OWS is the best recent example of this. The busloads of out-of-state union goons who invaded Wisconsin during the failed recall election. The Nation of Islam. Hell, the whole Gimmedat Party.
BTW, the relatives of the man that you refer to called bullsh!t on that claim. I'm sure that won't keep you from spreading the lie your "thinkers" fed you.
White Collar Auto: I was just thinking that this was a rather nice little human interest story. Now if only Paul Ryan was true to his roots, it would be worth noting.
However, you have to wonder what will his dear gray haired mother might be saying after Paul Ryan and Mitt Ryan destroy Medicare for future generations while causing those who currently depend on Medicare to pay more, while ensuring that private insurance companies and for profit medical corporations make more money off the government. Thank goodness there are enough people with brains who will not vote a Republican.
ZOMBIES for ROMNEY/RYAN 2012 !!!
who could be the next vice president of the United States
Could be, but won't
My thoughts exactly! 'Could be'; if snowball's have a chance in hell! (literally AND figuratively, eh?)
I hope you like crow.
I think Ryan is exactly what Romney needed. We will see soon enough.
careful thetotas, the resident racists will call you a racist
oh geez, how is eating crow a racist thing?
ask them, they find racism everywhere. just sayin dont be shocked
No way, I am not falling for that.
Michigan tied in the polls, a state Obama won by 16% in 2008?
I would be worried if I was an Obama worshipper like Amy....but bless her heart, she is oblivious to reality...
Bob: if you are referring to the Mitchell poll, look at the data... robo call survey... questionable reliability.
But, you are correct, statistical tie...
No one said this was going to be a cake walk.
But then again, "Dewey Defeats Truman" ..... right ?
.
This ain't the repub's year. Next year ain't lookin' none too good either.
Maybe Obama could go off somewhere and play a guitar, or attend a couple of fund raisers while he jokes about New Orleans getting drowned.
Pretty much what Bush did,...right?
At least Mr. Wonky had enough control to not go where Willard had no fear of going .....with basically the same statement!
A nice story about a kid who grew up in small town America, like millions of us did. Why does he have a need to control how the rest of us are supposed to live our lives?
It is Obama and his leftist state-worshippers who want government control over all aspects of our lives.
However, if you want a abortion in the 9th month, and then kill the baby after it is born alive, you should vote for Obama, he has your back on that..
Bob - why do you need to lie in order to promote your candidates? That's all you do. President Obama has NEVER been in favor of late term abortions unless it is to save the life of the mother. And, no one has been in favor of killing a child that has been born - that is a lie perpetrated totally by the GOP.
The only party that wants control over what a woman does with her life is the GOP and most of us are too smart to fall for it!
Obama/Biden 2012
SeekingSanity - Here is an article you might want to read: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_Barack_Obama%27s_views_on_abortion
sfcret,
Wow, I didnt know this. Thanks for providing the link.
thetotas - you are welcome. Might want to also go to http://www.factcheck.org/2008/08/obama-and-infanticide/. Best way to answer the left wingers is with facts. They can't handle the truth.
"Richie Rich" Ryan is being sent off to the "Crazy Conservative Convention" in Tampa of the "Gross Odd People" (GOP), and the "Really Not Competent" (RNC). "Richie Rich" Ryan is not for the Middle Class, the Working Poor, the elderly, and the disabled. He will be "Politically Dancing" around the stage in Tampa, and he will insist that the "Poor" are NOT allowed. This is an individual that has supported the outsourcing of American Jobs, the destruction of equal pay for equal work, and is the "Political Puker" of the Koch Brothers. "Richie Rich" Ryan has NO problem of voting to destroy Medicare, because he has already voted to do so! Yes America! "Romulian Romney" likes to shop at Cosco, however his buddies at "Bain Capital" are out to destroy it. "Romulian Romney" has No problem acting like "Popeye." WOW! What a real joke AMERICA.
Progressive - or as I like to say Gross Old Perverts - but we'll agree!
Obama/Biden 2012
There it is. The Obama base. Envious, petty little people. A seven line diatribe that stinks of a failed life seeking what has not been earned. A malcontent who believes the world owes them what good people have earned simply because they exist.
Thank God there are not enough of you this go round. It is Obama's greatest mistake, and one that proves he is not the political genius or charasmatic figure he would have us all believe. He (and his incompetent team) actually thought we are a nation of malcontents, that they could cobble together a base of malcontents. He thought that would be enough to give him four more years to prove how truly incompetent and radical he is. It's not working and it never will.
Well isn't that special. He sees a picture, he should have a copy of, that includes his father. How nice. A man who has spent most of his adult life in Washington, DC living on tax payer money claims to "go where the home fires burn brightly for those we so dearly love". How utterly special. He'll be back soon enough. After November he'll take up permanent residency and maybe even find a real job instead of living off the government teat.
Yep, I recognize that widow's peak.