Ryan says he feels 'really good' in ticket's campaign role

LAKELAND, Fla. – Paul Ryan dismissed claims Friday afternoon that he is not being properly utilized on the campaign trail as Mitt Romney’s running mate.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a major advocate of Ryan being tapped as VP, told a Milwaukee radio host earlier in the day the Romney campaign needs “to use him [Ryan] out on the trail more effectively, they need to have more of him rub off on Mitt.”

Ryan said he disagrees with the claims made by his fellow Cheesehead, saying he is “absolutely” being utilized enough.


“Oh, he [Walker] is just a good backer of mine. I feel really good about it [his role]. Look, I am doing the things I want to do,” Ryan said inside “Walker’s Produce” -- a local fruit stand. “Look at what we are doing, we are talking to local people, going around the country talking to local press. I am excited about my role. I feel very comfortable with it.”

The quick stop outside of Tampa came just a couple hours after the GOP presidential nominee released his complete 2011 taxes – something Republicans and Democrats alike have been pressuring Romney to do for some time. Romney paid more than $1.9 million in taxes on income of about $13.7 million and donated about $4 million to charity, although he only claimed a deduction of about $2.25 million from those donations, according to the campaign.

Bill Haber / AP

Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, R-Wis., appears at an AARP convention Friday in New Orleans.

Ryan reacted to Romney’s “unique” tax situation.

"I think that what this shows is that the Romneys are extremely generous people,” he told reporters. “They gave away 30 percent of their income to charity so Mitt Romney has always believed to whom much is given, much is required and he is living proof of that and this just shows you how generous the Romneys are as people."

The seven-term Wisconsin congressman, who walked thru the outdoor market in the Sunshine State with his 78-year-old mom, Betty, who is a Florida resident, held his only public event earlier in the day when he addressed the AARP convention in New Orleans. Ryan received a very unfriendly welcome by the crowd but it was nothing he didn’t expect.

“Entitlement reform has unfortunately been made very partisan by partisans and so I have gotten that kind of reaction and unfortunately it's what we've come to expect because the politics of reforming entitlements has become very bitter,” he said before heading to attend private fundraiser in the area. “It's very unfortunate because if we let the politics get the best of us-- these problems are going to get out of our control. We've got to fix Medicare before it goes bankrupt."

According to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Thursday, the Romney-Ryan ticket trails President Barack Obama in terms of how voters believe each ticket would deal with Medicare: 47 percent of voters surveyed believe Obama would better deal with the program compared to just 37 percent who believer Romney would handle it better.

 

Discuss this post

Jump to discussion page: 1 2 3 4

Hope you don't get re-elected to the House and certainly not into the VP slot. Then you can go home and get your first real job and get off the governments dime lying Ryan.

  • 2 votes
Reply#79 - Sat Sep 22, 2012 9:05 PM EDT

Just the look on Ryan's face in this photo makes me crack up laughing. Give me a break, what a joke!

  • 2 votes
Reply#80 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 12:08 AM EDT

Ryan "Feels Really Good" about his role? Obviously, because he has stopped talking about how they would screw the middle class by their budget and taxation plans!! Now they are concentrating on silly things like, 1)" Obama said he can't fix Washington from Inside and they can", 2) Obama said you didn't build that, 3) Obama is gutting the work requirement for Temporary assistance to Needy Families, 4) Obama is not a leader Blah Blah Blah. Why doesn't Romney and Ryan tell us more about their great 5-point plan (forget about the BS 59-point plan)? How do they plan to create 12 million jobs in 4 years? How do they plan to balance the budget - by giving another 10% tax cut to the richest (reducing the top tax rate from 35% to 25%), not cutting any defense budget but rather increasing by another trillion dollars in next 10 years? They don't want to talk about adding 716B back into medicare so that the insurance companies can still milk the system by offering bogus Medicare Advantage programs (they have audacity to say that 4 million will lose their medicare coverage - BS, the seniors who have medicare advantage can move into standard Medicare part B program that 90% of the seniors use). Where is the beef?

  • 3 votes
Reply#81 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 8:59 AM EDT

What's the man supposed to say?

    Reply#82 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 10:18 AM EDT

    .... Ryan feels "good" .... what a joke .. who feels good about being boo'd ... only a republican !

    • 1 vote
    Reply#83 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 10:44 AM EDT

    Romney thinks being president of the most powerful nation of the world is a laughing matter. That´s why they had an actor at their GOP convention to introduce an empty chair; and, they had Eastwood, who is not Ronald Reagan, but just an actor from the Good, the Bad and the Ugly; with Obama being the Good, Eastwood, Mitt and Ryan, the Bad and the Ugly.

    Mitt is also a traitor Mormon, who in times of foreign policy distress of the empire, criticizes his own leader to satisfy petty and cheap political ambitions because he is definitely not fit to be president; and, together with Ryan, both liars, too!

    Thus, Mitt Romney deserves to be severely criticized, and so does Ryan.

    And that´s exactly what Bill Clinton did!

    That is the real problem with Romney. He is totally misguided in foreign and domestic affairs. In foreign affairs he is not like Senator Dole, or Reagan, for example, Mitt is rather more like a ding bat who does not know where to go or what to do. And, now he wants the US government to (so to speak) disinherit 47% of the US population. To him, half the country live as parasites, and therefore support Obama. C´mon Mitt, give it up you are not qualified for the presidency: a war monger, racist, arrogant, and stupid.

    He wants to start WWIII over four dead corpses, ambassador or not, it´s a stupid idea. He forgets that about twenty or so Afghans – old men, women and children -- were massacred by a drunken lunatic US serviceman, not too long ago. To stop riots Mitt wants to go nuclear and bomb the hell out of the bastards. This is another stupid idea, Mitt. Can the world trust you with Cuba and Venezuela, North Korea, Mitt? I think not!

    In any case, the GOP nomination has been won by a perfect nobody in the sense of not being able to govern this country, Harvard BS or not -- big liar Mitt Romney who has spent his life in the "real" economy and not in DCA.

    No, Blondie, you can´t trust incompetent Mitt Romney, even though he is your husband!

    In 2002, to be Governor of Mass., Romney offered less government, less debt, better business, less tax, but the result was more fees, less business, more debt, and bigger inefficient state government. He even evaded taxes by claiming Olympics-Utah residency. He did not get the job done, as his dubious accomplishments, to be president, attest to. He is already crippled and weakened physically and morally by his riches. He bears no similarity whatsoever to the average American and is therefore not likeable by a vast majority of the country.

    That´s why he chose a fat, overweight slob like Christie to salute him on his GOP Convention day: a blonde and a fatso, c´mon… Are these the new symbols of the good old USA that the GOP wants to oversell?? Corruption, abortion, racism, and just plain being stupid, rather: Just being there!

    Romney with real world applications, Harvard BS – less than 15% effective rate taxpayer, instead of 30%; off shores' money manager man, Swiss banks and Cayman bank accounts, instead of putting the money in US banks; domestic job destroyer that buys companies for profit and then dissolves them, firing everyone in sight, instead of using his business background to turn around these companies´ economy and boost job creation; immigrant hater; not concerned about the poor, 47 million Americans; his economic plan is just a list of good intentions with no ideological base; posthumous Jewish baptizer; and, too filthy rich to be president now wants to eliminate Chavez, a dying man, by simply inventing threats to the USA, based on alliances with Iran. And, of course, in this last respect, supported by cheap propaganda spitted out by far right frustrated CIA-backed Cuban exiles or their off spring that have done well in this country, except Rubio who is bankrupt but was considered to accompany Mitt as VP. In the meantime, no one else wants to come here, the planet of the dying-off middle class; and, rapidly increasing poverty levels.

    And, Ryan is more of the same; in his GOP speech: He lied about Medicare. He lied about the Recovery Act. He lied about the deficit and debt. He even dishonestly attacked Barack Obama for the closing of a GM plant in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin -- a plant that closed in December 2008 under George W. Bush. He also failed to offer one constructive idea about what he would do to move the country forward. In other words, Ryan is a flunky too!

    Ryan even lied about his marathon time, less than three hours, he said, when his time was in fact closer to four hours. He also lied about his brother Tobin having run in Boston last year; if I´m not mistaken, to qualify for Boston you have to run a marathon in less than three hours; another sportsmanship lie?

    If Ryan lies about sportsmanship which he cares a lot about, then he is lying a lot more and about things that really matter. Both – i.e., Mitt and Ryan -- promise to create millions of jobs but they don't have a clue about how to do that. Remember Mitt is rather a job destroyer! In addition, these two are going to cut taxes for the rich, and cut budget allocations for both agriculture and education. They are taking away Medicare as we know it. It´ll disappear in 2016. They will privatize social security, and not for the good of the seniors. All these middle class gains, among others, will be lost to balance the budget, while the rich get fatter. Instead, they should plan to reduce any tax cuts for the wealthiest and prohibit subsidies for oil companies, etc., etc.

    In addition,

    (1) He has only made 2 years of tax returns available to the American public, while former presidents Bush released 19 years of returns, Clinton 16 years, George W. Bush 13 years; and, Obama 12 years, respectively. Romney's tax return includes 813 pages of which 65% "deal with overseas investments" including substantial investments in a Chinese oil company and what the dozens of foreign bank accounts, i.e., millions of dollars stashed away in notorious tax havens.

    (2) He won't disclose his "bundlers," the people raising millions for his campaign.

    (3) He is the sole owner of a questionable shell corporation in Bermuda.

    (4) Until recently, Romney kept cash in a Swiss bank account.

    (5) According to the Globe, he hasn't been honest about when he was running Bain Capital, even though legal documents refute his claims.

    Finally,

    25 years ago we had: Ronald Reagan

    Bob Hope and Johnny Cash

    Now we have: Obama, Plenty of Hope and A lot of Cash!!!!

    After Obama took Office,

    (1) The economy is growing again, away from the 8% shrink rate before Obama.

    (2) Just before Obama, we were losing some 820 thousand jobs/month, since then 4.1 million jobs have been created.

    (3) Inflation adjusted- after tax income has risen since 2009.

    (4) Net household wealth has also increased since 2009.

    Vote Obama and win, win, win!

    • 2 votes
    Reply#84 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 10:49 AM EDT

    RNC Chairman Priebus is a assh$$e!! He thinks that Obama is responsible for the financial crisis of 2007/2008 that caused the great recession and caused loss of millions of job that made them take unemployment benefits, food stamps, aid to needy families. He must be nuts and probably needs some psychiatric help to get over his lunacy. Thank God that Obama had the courage to extend unemployment benefits, put unemployed children on their parents healthcare insurance, make the leachy health insurance companies cover pre-existing conditions and remove the limits on coverage, cover the uninsured and put their skin in the game by forcing them to pay somethng for that coverage rather than run to emergency care only when they get sick.

    Obama has created 4.3 million new jobs in the hole created by the policies of stupid GWB. If the recession had not occurred, GWB had not started an illegal war in Iraq (we should have got rid of Saddam just like how Obama did with Egypt, Libya and Osama!) we would not be in the mess that we are in today and would not probably be in Afghanistan either. The republicans have the gall to blame Obama for the mess we are in after creating it!! On top of it they have these two candidates who have no clue as to how middle America and middle class live and they are willing to write them off and go back to the crazy policies of GWB that put us into this mess in the first place?? Romney has not worked a day for last 2-3 years to make his millions and pay lower taxes than a fire fighter, policeman, a teacher and most of the middle calss and the idiot is lecturing on govt. dependency. He is the one who is dependent on the govt. (getting all his tax breaks) Give us a break!!

    • 2 votes
    Reply#85 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 11:21 AM EDT

    Sarah Palin seemed to enjoy campaigning, too. Same outcome in the long run...

      Reply#86 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 12:03 PM EDT

      Obama/Biden 2012!!!!!!!

      • 3 votes
      Reply#87 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 1:01 PM EDT

      "Thanks Obama for Nothing"
      Well my paycheck's gettin' smaller, But all my bills are goin' up - When I order at the Diner, I'm only gettin' half a cup - Super market prices soaring, But I'm sinkin' like a rock - And gassin' up my tank Now only get's me down the block.

      The answers aren't in "yucking" it up On late night TV shows - Or stoppin' us from drillin' Where American oil flows - And it ain't in countries overseas That want to take us down - Or winning Nobel Prizes, For just showin' up in town.
      So I'd like to "thank" Obama For the mess he got us in - And I'm lookin' toward November To Vote Romney/Ryan in.
      Those "waters ain't receding" Like Obama said when tried - So the only truth we're left with Is Obama clearly lied - It takes hard work and now it's time To replace that worn "cliche" - Of "Hope and Change" Obama spewed Across the U S A
      Well we're out of "hope"And now it's time to "change" the resident - On Pennsylvania Avenue With a brand new President - Cause now he says it"s "Forward" time But we're surely all much wiser - Cause the lesson learned is never vote in a Community Organizer.
      When all the votes are counted And the dotted lines are signed, Then once again America Will NOT be leading from behind - So "Thanks" again Obama But it's time you packed it in - Cause that November evening, It's Romney/Ryan voted in!

        Reply#88 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 2:10 PM EDT

        Amerigal - Are we susposed to take you serious? You know, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.

          #88.1 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 10:41 PM EDT
          Reply

          It seems that Republican candidates and incumbents( many of who voted FOR Ryan's plan) are now running like HELL from Ryan's plan! And the DEMs are chasing them, hammering away at their party's stance on privatizing SS and Medicare! Therefore, it seems, at least according to one academic study, that the DEMs have a 74% chance of retaining the house!! This is just what is needed to begin to try to undo the multiple disasters the country faces, most courtesy of the GOP.

          Republicans at risk of losing the House -- http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/21/14017881-ryan-says-he-feels-really-good-in-tickets-campaign-role#comments

          If one goes back to the Nixon administration, one will find that Republicans have been the most lawbreaking, un-American, unpatriotic and even treasonous party in the history of the United States. Deliberately creating a debt crisis, which endangers our national security, financial stability and economic future, for the state purpose of privatizing/eliminating SS and Medicare is but one instance. There are MANY more.

          Seems to me that finally the people of America are expressing their anger at the prospect of the GOP's reduction of the country to a 2nd class state.

          • 1 vote
          Reply#89 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 3:03 PM EDT

          Hope you enjoy going back to the obscurity you came from.

          • 1 vote
          Reply#90 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 5:05 PM EDT

          And of course your post is addressed to...? Can't you click "Asnwer."?

            #90.1 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 5:32 PM EDT
            Reply

            It's really good that Ryan feels good during the campaign, because after November he won't be feeling that good.

            And now, since I belong to the 47% that the empty suit spoke about, I am going to the restaurant for my free meal because tomorrow I have to be in good shape to open my mail with my welfare check, my food stamps, my disability check (I have an ingrown toenail) and then I will demand my free healthcare from my doctor.

            Ahh, what a bliss, having all of this on the backs of working people like Romney, Ryan and the rest of the scumbags.

              Reply#91 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 5:29 PM EDT

              I feel really good about Ryan's "campaign role" too. ;)

              Ryan was a brilliant choice.....almost as good as McCain's choice of Palin.

                Reply#92 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 8:07 PM EDT

                So, if Ryan feels so good, why is he still running for Congress?

                • 1 vote
                Reply#93 - Sun Sep 23, 2012 8:23 PM EDT

                Excused ! 1200 waivers of Obamacare. Paul Ryan lets hear how you feel about the 1200 waivers of Obamacare. Illegal immigrants excused from Obamacare, Ryan, how do you feel about them keeping their same healthcare program..

                  Reply#95 - Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:51 AM EDT
                  Jump to discussion page: 1 2 3 4
                  You're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead.
                  As a new user, you may notice a few temporary content restrictions. Click here for more info.