Ryan counters on the trail in Virginia
Danville, Virginia (CNN) – Rep. Paul Ryan delivered the Romney campaign's new counter-offensive message of self-reliance versus redistribution of wealth at a rally on Wednesday.
"President [Barack] Obama said that he believes in redistribution. Mitt Romney and I are not running to redistribute the wealth. Mitt Romney and I are running to help Americans create wealth. Efforts that promote hard work and personal responsibility over government dependency are what have made this economy the envy of the world," the vice presidential candidate said in Virginia.
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Ryan did not explain to the crowd that the claim is based on a 1998 recording of Obama that the campaign and fellow Republicans are aggressively promoting in an effort to blunt criticism about Romney's secretly recorded remarks at a fund-raiser in May.
The clip features the future president who was an Illinois state senator at the time discussing what he calls a "propaganda campaign" against government funded entities, and suggesting better ways to make government more effective.
The Romney campaign, meanwhile, is trying to get beyond their presidential nominee's self-described "inelegantly stated" comments from the fund-raiser, which Ryan described as "obviously inarticulate" in a recent interview, and focus instead on the message he was trying to convey that people have become too dependent upon government under Obama.
As Ryan and his fellow Republicans reinforced this new line of attack Romney's running mate accused the president of trying to distract voters.
"He's out of ideas and that is why he has knocked this campaign down to a campaign of distraction, of distortion, to try and knock you off-center so that you'll just vote for the lesser of two evils," Ryan said of Obama. He's going to try and distract and divide this country to win by default."
The stakes are high for the dueling presidential campaigns as they clamor for support in critical battleground states.
Ryan has spent more time campaigning in Virginia since he joined the Republican ticket. The vice presidential hopeful held his 10th event Wednesday on the southern border in Danville, which Obama claimed in 2008 with 59% of the vote.
Obama's re-election team is hoping to win the Commonwealth's 13 electoral votes again in November. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have campaigned aggressively in the state.
At Ryan's rally with more than 500 people at Piedmont Precision Machine Company local officials were quick to point out that when Biden visited Danville, on August 14, he got confused and said he was in North Carolina.
There was no mention of the "back in chains" remark that Obama's running mate made on that same trip regarding Romney's policies on Wall Street reform.
In the afternoon Ryan flew to Washington, D.C. and visited a victory office in Northern Virginia. He met with 25-30 people selected by the campaign based on who made the more phone calls and knocked on the most doors.
CNN's Peter Hamby reported the Republican Party of Virginia and the Romney campaign have made more voter contacts this year than during the entire 2008 and 2009 election cycles combined, according to a Virginia GOP source who did not want to be named discussing internal strategy.
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Lyin Ryan has voted in congress for every redistribution of tax money to the wealthy, every unfunded war, every unfunded drug program, so he is the problem, not the solution.
Personal responsibility,from a man who has never held a private-sector job in his adult life? Please. His whole life and opportunities were created by government programs and paychecks, not by anything he has created. I would love to see him admit that his life and career were created by government service that we have all paid for.
" Mitt Romney and I are not running to redistribute the wealth."
That's right...they're running to protect the current system of distributing the wealth upwards.
"Mitt Romney and I are running to help Americans create wealth. "
FOR WHOM? THAT is the question and the answer is as plain as the rapidly growing noses on Mittens' and Lyin' Ryan's faces.
Lyin-Ryan fight for your set in Wisconsin, this endeavor for the VP ends here (it was too big of a league for you anyway). We got enough of your lies. In case you want know we sympathize with the Wisconsin people.
Robmey said in the tape he will do NOTHING to help the economy. It will just happen because he is the person to do nothing but believes in his magic underwear to do the trick. Go kick a can Rayn, we aren't buying it.
Lyin Ryan at it again. Get out of my state spreading your lies! Ask Lyin Ryan how fiscally responsible he was from 2000-2008.
Wire Palladin, S. F.
Lyin Ryan has voted in congress for every redistribution of tax money to the wealthy, every unfunded war, every unfunded drug program, so he is the problem, not the solution.
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and that "evil" stimulus program that while publicly villifying, was quietly taking advantage of
It's about time we redistribute from the top to the bottom, because the Bush years saw a gross redistribution from the bottom to the top.
ha ha ha ha ha ha
Ryan/Romney have lied so much they can't stop. Time to show them the door for the final time.
Obama/Biden 2012 because, Ann, it is NOT mitt's turn.
I don't know, Paul Ryan. There's been a REAL re-distribution of wealth already. Your party coins it trickle down. Middle class America coins it trickle up. Who is most correct, I wonder? Lot of folks in the upper bracket have been making lots of money since the GW administration ... that period when you voted for every GW giveaway to the rich. CEOs and such. The regular folk? Not so much.
Shouldn't plate face altar lying boy be in WI trying to save his real job.?
Like Barry Soetoro is the solution? That's a laugh. He is the problem and has been for the last four years. He may claim he is the POTUS that works for all and not 47% but we see otherwise. If that is true then he would be fired in the real world. Yeah, look at the numbers and tell me he's doing great. Of course, he IS only doing what his handlers tell him.
The right wing message is so laced with hypocrisy that it is hard to tell one strand from another. That's how they get away with it so much.
EXHIBIT A: Paul Ryan touting the new and improved, most recently etched and sketched message of self reliance.
HYPOCRISY A: How do the plan "to make America great" again if it is every man for himself? The whole is always stronger than the sum of its' parts.
Herman Cain seemed to warn us of a hidden agenda, a secret plan. "If you ain't rich by now, its' your own fault."
I'm totally self reliant and I'm relying on myself to get to the polls in November and vote for Obama.
Garbage. Pure and simple garbage.
More dissembling by Lyin' Ryan. The stink is really starting to get bothersome.
Sarah Palin is 120000000000 times better than this inexperienced idiot–McCain is 13000000 times right.
Al-NY,NY – Thanks for reminding me that Lyin Ryan voted against the stimulus and took credit for the jobs it created in his district.
There is a clear an consistent theme to Romney positions. One of ignorance and arrogance born out of wealth and privilege. When he talks about schools he says class size does not matter. It is someone else's problem. The parents should pay for education, like his did. When he talks about about college, the parents should go into debt and pay for their children, he of course had his trust fund for that, Ryan had Social Security. When he talks about the auto bailout, the government should have left it the hands of people like Romney to restructure GM by guaranteeing loans to the vulture capitalists to lower the wages of the union workers or liquidating entirely at the whim of real capitalists. Translation the taxpayer takes ALL the risk, the vultures take all the profits and the workers can fend for themselves. After all Romney is a job creator just look at Staples where the average pay qualifies many to be part of the working poor, part of the 47%. At his acceptance speech he neglected to thank those who defend us, again these people are part of the 47%. The Social Security recipients are part of the 47%. In the world of Romney, the 47% are leeches and then he wants to label it as class warfare, the rich against the poor. The great wealth to Huntsman was born into was never an issue, his ascendancy in a family company was aided by accident of birth but not defined by it. His service as governor and ambassador were unblemished. No one questioned his tax returns or whether he got amnesty for illegal Swiss accounts. So it NOT just wealth. It is not just class warfare. For 65 years we have followed the practice of reducing the tax obligation of those who have profited most from our society. It is long since past time that they be asked to share in the misery that they have helped create. It is true that Romney acquired wealth but at what moral cost. A poor thief steals a loaf of bread to feed his family and goes to jail, a rich thief has his hand in your pocket and expects you to thank him for it.
If there are no laws to discourage the outsourcing of jobs...no laws to stop wage disparities...no laws for tax fairness...HOW ON EARTH CAN THE MIDDLE CLASS WHO ARE SCUFFING TO SIMPLY SURVIVE GOING TO CREATE WEALTH?!!! Romney and Ryan HAVE NO PLAN TO HELP THE MIDDLE CLASS CREATE WEALTH. President Obama is the candidate with THE PLAN FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS. And yes, HIS PLAN would change the laws...tax laws...wage laws, etc. HIS PLAN WOULD IMPOSE WALL STREET REGULATIONS for the benefit of all of us...IF THAT IS "A REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH", THEN I'M ALL FOR IT!!!!
I'm totally self reliant and i'm pay MORE THAN ENOUGH in taxes and I'm voting for the Obama.
Paul: Just stop – stop lying. Concentrate on retaining your house seat and bring the word "compromise" into your vocabulary and heart if you ever want to have another chance running for higher office. You're making a fool of yourself and you seem much too intelligent to have these bigoted, off-the-rail views. Stop it!
For the undecided voters, I think Romney has a serous problem as he has stated several times. That is, Romney's polling indicates that folks are not happy with Obama. His polling also shows that if he gives SPECIFICs, then folks will not vote for Romney including many of the elderly and working class white males.
I do not think many on the right understand this point. I'll say it plainly. I think Romney's polling indicates that if he details the Ryan/Romney plan with specific to meet his goals, the polls show that he will lose!!!! Yet many on the right believe that is everyone would only be allowed to listen to their words, then they would vote for Romney.
Folks that talk with independents and look at the polling understand this.
Well, Lyin' Ryan means they're not going to change the current DIRECTION of redistribution of wealth. They're gonna see that it continues to be redistributed from the middle class to the rich, just as it has been since Saint Ronnie's day. That's their whole program (so far as we know it, since they're light on specifics). Shovel money to their rich runnin' buddies. Trickle Up. Skim the middle class. Slash wages, break unions and increase middle class taxes. Whatever you wanna call it, that's what they're saying.
Amen to all those who see clearly through the smoke & mirrors of the Romney/Ryan magic show.
Life isn't always easy for us in the 47%, but we shall prevail against the "robber-barons" in the GOP.
GOP – Globalization Over Prosperity; Greed Over Principles; Grubby Old Patriarchs; the list is endless.
Sink us to a 'third-world' level by outsourcing our jobs and then they will create 12m low-paying jobs here
while they redistribute their wealth to off-shore accounts and tax havens. I hope they choke on it.........
Congressman Ryan knows "offensive message" – it's all he knows how to do.