NORFOLK, Va. -- Rep. Paul Ryan named Mitt Romney's running
mate on Saturday, ending weeks of speculation about the No. 2 slot on
the GOP ticket.
The Associated Press and several TV networks
confirmed the news about the Wisconsin lawmaker. By about 2:35 a.m. ET,
RomneyRyan.com went live as a website.
Ryan, 42, is best known as
the chairman of the House Budget Committee and author of a dramatic plan
to overhaul Medicare, the government-run health insurance program for
senior citizens.
Romney is set to reveal his running mate at the
U.S.S. Wisconsin, before setting out on a tour of key swing states to
highlight his economic plans for the middle class. In
an interview with NBC on Thursday, Romney said he was looking for
someone with "a strength of character" and "a vision for the country
that adds something to the political discourse about the direction of
the country."
With Ryan as his running mate, Romney appears ready
to have a national conversation about federal spending and the growth of
entitlements with one of the GOP's leading budget authorities at his
side.
Ryan, a House member since 1999, has proposed to overhaul
both Medicare and Medicaid, the programs that have been a hallmark of
the nation's compact to provide health care to senior citizens and the
poor. Under his plan, Medicare would be run by private insurers while
Medicaid would be turned over to the states.
His goal, he said, was to leave "a debt-free nation" to the next generation. "At stake is America," he said last year. Ryan's
budget plan has been widely criticized by President Obama and his
fellow Democrats, who contend it would "end Medicare as we know it."
Obama has called Ryan's plan "thinly veiled social Darwinism."
With
much speculation focused on Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and ex-Minnesota
governor Tim Pawlenty, the 42-year-old Ryan got a big boost from
conservatives this week. The Wall Street Journal, whose
editorial page holds sway among conservatives, said choosing Ryan would
underscore "the nature and stakes of this election." "More than
any other politician, the House Budget Chairman has defined those stakes
well as a generational choice about the role of government and whether
America will once again become a growth economy or sink into
interest-group dominated decline," the Journal editorial said.
Virginia
is the first stop in a four-day bus tour of swing states that will also
include North Carolina, Florida and Ohio. Obama won all four states in
the 2008 election.
