Paul Ryan has a reputation as a free-thinker, and his star looks set to rise
THE CROWD is overwhelmingly white and middle-aged. The music on the loudspeakers is a mix of inoffensive country’n’western. And then, improbably, the roar of AC/DC’s Rock’N’ Roll Train engulfs the arena.
A trim young man, wearing a crisp white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, bounds up on stage. The crowd erupts. The college gymnasium in this placid suburb outside Cleveland is suddenly a choppy sea of waving hands and red-and-white election posters.
The speakers blare:
One heart angel
One cool devil
Your mind on the fantasy
Livin on the ecstasy . . .
“He’s hot!” beams a college girl at the back of the auditorium, as her friends wave Romney/Ryan placards.
This is an election rally, Paul Ryan-style. He is the vice-presidential candidate who has helped add a younger and more dynamic edge to the Republicans’ election campaign.
In some respects he is the anti-Mitt Romney. Where the presidential candidate has often seemed stilted, Ryan gives an all-embracing hug to his warm-up acts onstage.
“Go Browns!” roars Ryan, a genuine sports enthusiast, repeating the catch-cry of the local American football team.
With his athletic physique and angular face, he has his fair share of female admirers too.
But Ryan is much more than a photogenic face. Over recent years he’s built a reputation as one of the party’s leading free-thinkers and intellectuals by carving out the bulk of the party’s economic policy.
Regardless of whether Republicans win or lose this election, Ryan’s star looks set to rise. Win, and there’s the vice-presidency. Lose, and he will have a solid platform from which to launch a bid for the presidency in four years’ time.
Today, at the gymnasium of Baldwin Wallace University, in the all-important swing state of Ohio, there is a more immediate issue to contend with. After a fortnight of momentum, the fallout of Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women” is still ringing in the campaign team’s ears. Ryan doesn’t waste any time engaging in damage limitation.
“You know, we had a discussion [during the recent TV debate] about how women are faring in this economy,” he says. Five-and-a-half million women are still struggling for work in this economy. A half-million women more are unemployed today than when President Obama was sworn in.
“Twenty-six million women are trapped in poverty today. That’s the highest rate in 17 years. We need to get people back to work.”
His stump speech is chock-a-block with well-crafted soundbites that mostly take aim at Obama’s record in failing to improve the lives of Americans. But as his rhetoric soars, he seeks to redefine this not as just another election – but as a battle for the very soul of America.
“Somewhere out there on that horizon is that dream you have for your yourself, for your children. Lately, to many people it seems to have got more distant. It’s still there. We need leadership,” he says.
“Great leaders step up at important moments . . . We’re not just deciding who’s going to be in Washington for a few years, we’re deciding what kind of country we’re going to be, what kind of people we’re going to be.
“The American idea is still there: the only thing limiting yourself in this free society and free economy is your own God-given talent, your own hard work and effort.”
There are roars of approval. Then the mood gets dark. He provides a long list of Obama’s failures over the past four years. He paints an even bleaker picture of what another four years would look like: borrowing, endless money-printing, debt crisis, higher taxes, bloated government.
“If you want to see how this movie ends, he says, go home, turn on the TV and look at Europe,” he says, to more applause. “They’re already in that crisis. They’ve already kicked the can so far down the road that there’s no more road to kick the can down.”
The crowd stands and cheers. Sheryl Christopher (65) is one of many clapping enthusiastically.
“I like his energy,” she says. Her husband, Walter (68), who comes from Kent, Ohio, and has retired from working for a division of General Motors, is also impressed.
“He’s a tremendous mind. He’s right on with the figures and what we need to get back on track. He definitely has a plan and he’ll help straighten this country out. The last four years have been horrendous . . . The price of gas is sky-rocketing. It will get worse under Obama.”
As the audience streams out, there are queues at stalls for Romney/Ryan merchandise.
“You know, no one ever looks for anything with Mitt Romney’s face,” says a stall owner outside the venue, selling T-shirts, badges and baseball caps. “They want ones with his name, but not his face. Now Ryan, on the other hand . . . ”
Jim Kenzig (50) from Cleveland, a Republican, has been impressed by Ryan and thinks it’s not the last he’ll see of him.
“I think he could be president one day . . . But right now, I just really worry for our future if we have another four years of Obama.”
