Ryan in E. Ohio: Obama does not deserve 2nd term has made no case for new term

Associated Press

NEW PHILADELPHIA

Starting a two-day bus tour of Ohio’s small towns and cities, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan told voters Saturday that President Barack Obama hasn’t made the case he deserves a second term.

Ryan planned stops at a factory and a bakery, a couple of high schools and a dairy on his first day of this campaign swing through Ohio, a state that has become the lynchpin of Republican Mitt Romney’s presidential bid. Romney and Ryan appeared together on Friday night at a high school sports field and, after weather threatened Romney’s schedule on Sunday in Virginia, the campaign announced the pair would continue their schedule together in Ohio instead.

Their goal: Try to connect with working class voters the GOP needs if it is to deny Obama a second term on Nov. 6.

“We cannot afford four more years like these last four years,” Ryan told 1,000 supporters who huddled on the cold factory floor of Gradall Industries in eastern Ohio. “And we don’t have to.”

Ryan set out on his 400-mile tour of Ohio under gray skies and rain, beginning a swing where he would lay the blame for the nation’s struggling economy solely at Obama’s doorstep. While Ohio has an unemployment rate lower than the national average, Ryan has argued that the state’s relative fortunes are despite Obama, not because of him.

“He can’t run on his record. The Obama economic agenda failed,” Ryan said.