VP pick Paul Ryan gets a big home-state welcome

Talk about it

Paul Ryan told about 10,000 supporters in Waukesha Sunday night that voters will have a stark choice in November. The Janesville congressman said it was “good to be home” after Republican Mitt Romney named him as his vice-presidential running mate on Saturday in Virginia.

Romney told the Waukesha crowd that President Obama wants the “lowest, meanest negative campaign in history” and he and Ryan won’t let that happen.

Ryan said Americans will decide whether they want a society of opportunity where people can get ahead and make the most of their lives, or if they want to “copy Europe” and go down a path of “debt, doubt and despair.”

Ryan said he wants to earn the voters’ support and to win because people want him and Romney to “go fix the mess in Washington.”

Ryan also promised to be true to his Wisconsin roots. He said his family still lives on the same block where he grew up in Janesville.

Romney appeared energized by his running mate. He brushed off a heckler near the stage by saying, “You ought to find a different place to be disruptive because here we believe in listening to people with dignity and respect.”

Monday, Ryan and Romney will branch off. Ryan will campaign in Iowa, while Romney hits the stump in Florida.

Risky choice?

Mitt Romney’s staff warned him it would be risky to choose Paul Ryan as his running mate, considering the controversy from Ryan’s plans to scale back Medicare and other federal spending.

Romney thought the chance was worth taking. Senior adviser Beth Myers said it was Romney alone who made the choice.

Myers spilled the beans in Dallas over the weekend about the immense secrecy that surrounded the selection of the Janesville congressman. She said the deal was sealed last Monday when Ryan snuck through a Chicago airport in a baseball cap and flew to New England, where an adviser's son drove the House Budget Chairman to his parents' dining room where Romney made his final choice.

On CBS’s “60 Minutes” Sunday night, Romney said he nailed down his final choice even earlier, back on Aug. 1. Romney said Ryan was always his No. 1 man. He said he considered others just to be sure.

On Friday, Myers said Ryan was cutting through the woods behind his home to avoid a reporter out front. By then, some national media outlets were already reporting that he was chosen.

Still, Ryan hid in a hotel room on Friday night, where he wrote the speech he delivered Saturday on the USS Wisconsin in Virginia, where Romney introduced him.

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