Paul Ryan wasted no time on Thursday in attacking President Barack Obama and the Democrats on the final day of the Democratic National Convention.
“The president is going to be in Charlotte tonight with the Democratic convention. Their convention actually began with a tribute to big government. They actually said government is the only thing we all belong to,” Ryan told the crowd. “Then, they cut references to God out of their platform. They reserved course on that one yesterday – it wasn’t really a popular reversal if you watched it on TV.”
Continuing inside an airplane hanger: “But to quote a popular journalist from Wisconsin, ‘they were against God before they were for him.’” [The journalist, POLITICO’s Jim VandeHei, made the comments on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Thursday morning.]
Speaking in the Centennial State – where four years ago, Obama officially accepted the Democratic Party's presidential nomination – the Republican vice presidential candidate said the president hasn’t lived up to his promises and has made the economy worse.
“You know, right here in Colorado, four years ago with the Styrofoam Greek columns, the big stadium, the president gave this long speech with lots of big promises,” Ryan said speaking inside WestPac Restorations. “And he said, let me quote ‘if you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.’ You know what, that is what he said four years ago and that is exactly what he is doing today. He has no record to run on.”
The attacks are coming from both sides.
Wednesday night, former President Bill Clinton spoke at the convention in Charlotte, NC and did not hold back on attacking the Romney-Ryan ticket.
“When Congressman Ryan looked into that TV camera and attacked President Obama's Medicare savings 'the biggest, coldest power play,' I didn't know whether to laugh or cry,” Clinton said. “Because that $716 billion is exactly to the dollar the same amount of Medicare savings that he had in his own budget! You got to admit one thing, it takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did.”
Congressman Ryan, who in Iowa on Wednesday morning praised Clinton for working with Republicans while in office, made no reference to the remarks made at the convention last night by the 42nd president.
The House Budget Committee Chairman, however, did acknowledge he may have finally found one thing to agree on with current Vice President Joe Biden.
“You know it was just reported that in the middle of President Obama’s debt ceiling negotiations last summer Vice President Biden said quote, ‘You know if I were doing this I’d do it totally different,’” Ryan told the nearly 3,000 people here in Colorado about the upcoming Bob Woodward book, "The Price of Politics."
"Sounds like Joe and I finally agree on something," the congressman deadpanned.