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Andrew Innerarity / Reuters
Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan waves to supporters while holding a cup of coffee during a campaign stop at a Cuban restaurant and coffee shop in Miami on Saturday.
BELOIT, Wis. -- Paul Ryan has been campaigning as Mitt Romney’s running mate for six weeks but it wasn't until this week that the Republican vice presidential nominee finally pulled out a tool from his own Wisconsin playbook: a PowerPoint presentation.
“I'm kind of a PowerPoint guy so I hope you'll bear with me,” the Wisconsin congressman and budget guru joked to a crowd full of supporters Saturday afternoon in Orlando, Fla.
Speaking on the campus of the University of Central Florida, the wonky Ryan used four different slides to help demonstrate the problems with the nation’s debt and how spending has changed under President Barack Obama.
Michael Steel, a spokesman for the Romney campaign, said the use of the presentation – which was displayed on two large television monitors inside a gymnasium – was “simply another tool to highlight President Obama's failed leadership."
But it’s also a staple of Ryan's campaigning for his seven terms in the United States Congress.
Ryan’s congressional re-election campaign spokesman, Kevin Seifert, told NBC News a PowerPoint presentation is “a staple of Congressman Ryan's townhall meetings” – which, Ryan himself pointed out, he has held more than 500 with his constituents over the years. Seifert added: “It is a great way to explain problems like the debt and deficits and always has spurred great discussion with constituents in the first congressional district.”
Florida politicians help Ryan woo Hispanics
After debuting the PowerPoint slides in Florida, Ryan went on to hold a nearly 30-minute question and answer town hall session with the couple thousand-person crowd.
This “new” prop comes just following reports casting Ryan as “mini-Mitt” -- that is, the Romney campaign had forced the congressman to follow the lead of the nominee, rather than letting him be himself. Plus, early Friday morning, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker publicly chided the Romney campaign for not “effectively” utilizing the GOP vice presidential nominee. But, Ryan told reporters, he is happy with his role.
“I feel really good about it [his role]. Look, I am doing the things I want to do,” he said Friday inside Walker’s Produce, a fruit stand in Lakeland, Fla. “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 event, though, marked Ryan’s first retail drop-by since Aug. 25, when he stopped by the Puritan Backroom restaurant in Manchester, N.H., despite holding more than 50 events in the last month and a half.
In the lead-up to his VP selection, Ryan would answer questions from the press practically whenever reporters would have questions. In the month and half since being tapped on Aug. 11 to fill this new position, the congressman has yet to do a formal press conference. Friday, standing inside the fruit stand, was the first time Ryan has answered questions from the press on the ground (he has held two quick gaggles on board his press plane flying between states).
When the House Budget Committee chairman first joined Romney’s ticket in August, he was forced to align his views with his running mate noting “no two people agree on every single issue” and Romney is the top of the ticket.
But as the weeks go on, it appears Ryan is settling into his role as Romney’s number one surrogate on the campaign trail. Perhaps this weekend is the start of Ryan being allowed to insert more of himself into the ticket with just 44 days left before Election Day.
As it is sometimes said on the campaign trail, it is always good to “let Paul be Paul.”
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Everyone needs to remember figures don't lie but liars do figure. I just looked up charts of the deficit compared to gdp which is keeping the deficit in context. And the highest ever was in the 40's after the great depression when people had no clue what they were doing. Thankfully Obama does. He has rescued us and instead of having 25% unemployment we have only 8.3 which is not too far from the normal 5% which is considered great in economics. Or at least that is what is was when I took economics. The Ryan Romney team wants you all to be confused and listen to a bunch of jargon from an "expert". Well we have seen how expertly he lies. Right in front of us all the time. When you keep that in mind nothing he says is reliable. I don't care how many charts or figures or excuses. The only thing he has going for him is that people think we have a problem. But we have to remember Ryan and Romney are the problem not the solution. We need some people in the house of representatives who handle the purse strings ie Ryan who has been there for 25 years so I guess he can take some responsibility for it right. Well no. We need to bring back some adults who are willing to cooperate so that our country can get back on track. We need businesses to admit they can't run roughshod over everyone else for money and that we all need to take some responsiblity for getting our country back in order. Any watching the last two years has had to see that the teaparties are not willing to negotiate at all and are willing to let our country go down the tubes to get their way. We don't need that. We need to get some doers back in the congress and to realize the person in charge may not look like what you want them too but what is inside his head is much more important than what is in his bank acct. What you have done in the past is a great predictor of the future. So we don't need Romney or Ryan anywhere in public office. We need Obama. His intent is not to make great wealth at everyones expense like the other guy. His intent is to get our country back on course. That is a leader we and the house of reps need to follow. First we have to get thehouse back in order and then get Obama to stay in the White HOuse for 4 more years. Our country depends on it. Anyone else who disagrees needs to do some research at unbiased websites and sit down and think about what they have found. They might want to view the recent video if they haven't seen it. It is a tell all. Republicans are not what they used to be or not what you thought. I am not sure which. But I do know they do not have our country as a whole in their interest.
OMG they have resusitated the Perot campaign!!!
Yes!!! That was my FIRST thought: Paul never saw Ross Perot do his thing.
Perot made sense in comparison to Ryan.
Can Ryan, use a slide presentation to display how many many people who have paid lots of income taxes will never consider voting for Mitt Romney, and many many people who have paid none or receive public assistance would never vote for Obama? (and how that fact makes Romney's comments sound pretty foolish)
And maybe Ryan can use another slide presentation to display how the embracing of Ayn Rand philosphies by his fellow Rand disciple, Alan Greenspan, was a significant contributing factor to the debt crisis. Those are a few PP displays I'd like to see from Congressman Ryan.
I'm confident that some in the audience had to choke it down; being made to sit through ANY PP presentation is demeaning to the audience at best.
You can draw an a--- hole on paper but you can't make it s--t.
Very clever! You can lead a horse to water, and Paul Ryan can make him drink.
I was a manager for General Motors for over 30 yrs. and saw countless Power Point presentations which showed bogus data so I for one am not impressed. We went bankrupt so the presentations are only as truthful as the data used and Ryan has already demonstrated his truthfulness.
A Powerpoint presentation underlines two facts:
One, the speaker didn't care enough to learn the information, and
two, they assume their audience to be idiots, who need a visual aid to grasp ideas.
Story correction - it should read: "Paul Ryan is a tool"
We apologize for any misinterpretation...
PS: Doesn't anyone notice the strong photo resemblance to Gomer Pyle?
Article headline was phrased incorrectly should read "ryan is a tool".
No one has won a second term with an unemployment rate above 8%. The "official " unemployment rate stands at 8.3%
Not getting better, just keeps getting worse.
For all of you who have been out of a job for so long, do you think another four years of Obama promises will get you back to work?? Is next summer the "summer of recovery?? or the summer after that??
How's that new Chevy volt running?? Did you notice the President allowed 1000,000 illegal immigrants to stay right here, and get their work permits?? No problemo. I'm sure the President has your new job reserved just for you. LOL All nice and neat, and "shovel ready". LOL
FDR did.
eight years of Bush will take years for the economy to recover. As a recovering Republican, I suggest you read Einstein's "Out of My Later Years". He explains why capitalism fails. Just as his brilliance in physics has been proven by experimental evidence supporting his theories, I think this book explains in full detail why capitalism will fail humanity. Economic theory is not the same as physics theory, as one is a social science and the other a natural science. Human beings and economics are based on emotions as opposed to physics based on reproducible experiments. Economics is the dismal science while physics is based on objective data gathering. My point is that it takes a great mind to see through all the distractions of reality to predict the future. Einstein fills that role. Read his Memoirs for knowledge.
Paul "Ayn Rand" Ryan did pilot the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile, and I think that is his biggest claim to fame outside of his "sterling" hitch as a Rebublican budget hatchet man in the House. People said that Obama was not qualified to be POTUS based upon his thin resume. I say that Ryan's resume is a bowl of thin gruel when you step back and take an objective look at it. Just remember this Ryan and Romney = Vulture and Voucher.
Obama / Biden 2012
This is Mitt Romney's third attempt at the Presidency. As an Independent voter, I would like to understand what has changed with Mitt Romney that the GOP is now in full support of his campaign. He's constantly changing his campaign strategy. I can't keep track of what he stands for just in this election alone. Every week it is a different message. Talk about changing it up and confusing the heck out of voters. One week you are in full support of one cause while the next week you oppose it.
Paul Ryan is out on his own preaching his own message that may or may not coincide with Romney. WTH?
Romney brought a tool to his campaign too. Ryan.
Lyin' Paul Ryan is a master of distortion and a pathological liar.
For those conservatives who are waving their arms and shouting "socialized medicine!" at the Obama plan, what do we have now? Most working Americans get their health care through ERISA, a law that requires companies to offer a health care insurance plan to workers. The law shields insurers and HMOs from direct lawsuits for breach of contract when their adjusters decide that you don't really need the life-saving procedures that your doctor says you have to have. Instead, you go through a lengthy appeals process that is ultimately decided by the insurance company itself. Only then, if you are still alive and if you can afford an attorney by this time, can you ask a court to make the insurer provide the treatment. At least the government places some value on you as a taxpayer and voter with family members who also vote. Insurers and HMOs look at you as a source of revenue from the premiums you pay. When you get sick and can't pay them, you are a liability. This kind of situation where there is a partnership between government and industry is called National Socialism. So, health care is already a socialist system.
Ryan lost me when he lost the marathon.
A Power point presentation. Now why didn't I think of that! I will work on presenting a power point of this:
Let's look at Capital Gains. Capital gains is that amount that exceeds basis valuation of property or investments only! Capital gains taxes has always been a contentious issue among the richest Americans and slowly made its way into the tax code when the richest began to abuse the system and bought politicians in the early 1900's. Romney has other forms of income from different sources and those instruments are also taxed at a lower rate as allowed by the Congress, since the Congress has the fiduciary responsibility for taxation and not the president. Interest income, dividends, royalties, depreciation, amortization, exemptions, exceptions and a multitude of other variations to minimize tax liability, along with expense-able items allowed by the Congress for on-going operations of profit generating enterprises, goes a very long way for those who are in business. Excesses abound in the tax code! Most people go into business to make money. Every version or source of income should be treated as ordinary income for equitable and proportional taxation.
Romney is the fooling one as he dances the Gangnam style around taxation just like Ryan, Cantor and all the other TEA-Republican's trying to distance themselves from Todd Akin.
that tool must be a spare tongue.
The man has never had a real job. He only worked for his family business which received government contracts to build roads. Then he is a Congressman sucking on the government benefits and while he runs for VP he is also running for Congress. He needs to go back to his district and get a job in an auto plant if he can find one. He is a good example of someone without real world experience.
These are the same guys who harp on Mr. Obama for his teleprompter?
Power Point is perhaps the only known computer application that can successfully mask Ryan's obscenely pitiful arithmetic!
PTI
Why ryan does not show teeth when smiling? Permanent bug stains from that 2 hour marathon he ran.
@ProBusiness....Nice speech - where are the facts ?
It's amazing to me how all the liberals are more interested in tuning in to a football game , and can name all the so called pseudo-celebrities, than understanding that our country is going down the tubes thanks to Obama's decisions. You just can't seem to get that through your heads, can you? I call it the "American Idol" syndrome. Democrats/Liberals/Progressives (or whatever they call yourselves now days) do not want a real President running our country, they just want another pseudo-celebrity to "yuck" it up on Letterman's show. Well, America is now paying the price for this fool!
Another Obama hater in fulll battle mode.
And all out of talking points that hold water.
Romney's lagging on the marching orders, the minions are aimless at the moment.
Ryan also brings the other things from his past like planning to kill Pell grants, voucherize medicare and medicaid and privatize social security. Beware of this man dont let him fool you . This man killed every bill Obama presented, even the very bills he and his cronies in the Congress formulated, yet there was never a bill from Bush he didnt sign. This same Ryan signed the bills for the two wars and the medicare prescription and never paid for them , this led to this terrible deficit which they all tied to Obama.
Ryan IS a tool, and a huge nosed ugly one at that.
How Ryan can say anything or present any honest presentation, after he was intimately fully involved in the REPUBLICAN GREAT RECESSION of 2008, along with the REPUBLICAN CARTEL's total FAILURE to ASSIST in the FINANCIAL RECOVERY, is pure HYPOCRICY on STEROIDS!
The ONLY action Ryan has taken toward ECONOMIC RECOVERY is to OBSTRUCT ECONOMIC RECOVERY, without any CONCERN for the MILLIONS OF FAMILIES whose financial and mental lives they have disrupted and destroyed.
Thank you Obama Administration for saving our country from bankruptcy and turning our country on a PATH OF RECOVERY which ultimately will help ALL OF US!