CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan is feeling optimistic about a win in the Hawkeye State on Tuesday.
“So I just got a question: Iowa, you gonna help us win this thing?” Ryan asked the crowd at the University of Northern Iowa. “Darn straight. Absolutely. It feels good. We can do it. Right here in the heartland. Right here in the Midwest."
Ryan, a seven-term Wisconsin congressman, told the nearly 1,000-person crowd it could come down to two states.
“Our two states right here – Wisconsin and Iowa – we can tip it over. We can make the difference right here in Iowa,” he said. “Look, in 2008 President Obama won our states. A lot of our fellow Iowans and Wisconsinites looked at the message. They looked at hope and change and it sounded great and so a lot of people voted for that. The president made a lot of grand promises. He said he would heal the partisan wounds and bring people together. This is the most partisan time I have seen in Washington.”
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who made his closing argument speech Friday in Wisconsin, has been speaking a great deal about the need for bipartisanship. Ryan picked up on this theme in Iowa, as well.
“President Obama has not met with the party leaders of the Republican party in the House or the Senate since July. That doesn’t get things done. That’s partisanship. That’s acrimony. Mitt Romney and I have proven that we know how to work with people on the other side of the aisle. We have proven that we know how to get things done,” he said.
With four days to go before Election Day, Ryan and Romney are barnstorming the country – especially the battleground states – to try and defeat the incumbent president.
“A handful of states will determine this. A handful of states. And Iowa, you know this, you’re used to it with the caucuses. You’ve had everybody running for president in your kitchen,” Ryan said as Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, Gov. Terry Branstad, and Lt Gov. Kim Reynolds sat nearby.
According to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Wednesday, Obama is ahead of Romney by six points among likely voters, 50 percent to 44 percent, which is down from his eight-point lead earlier this month.
Both Romney and Ryan will hold another event in Iowa -- which will award six electoral votes -- before Nov. 6, and President Obama will travel to Iowa for his final rally Monday night before polls open.