Ryan, Obama, both campaign in Iowa as focus of campaign shifts to Medicare

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney's freshly minted running mate is hitting the American presidential campaign trail on his own for the first time, making appearances in Iowa as President Barack Obama begins a three-day tour of the same key battleground state.

Paul Ryan and Obama are vying for headlines and attention in Iowa, where the president decisively won his first primary victory in January 2008 on his way to snagging the Democratic nomination. Romney and Obama are neck and neck in the polls in the so-called Hawkeye State.

But polls also suggest Romney's choice of Ryan — a Wisconsin congressman and the Republican party's fiscal restraint czar — hasn't wowed the American public.

Ryan was described as only a "fair" or "poor" choice by 42 per cent of respondents to a USA Today/Gallup survey released Monday, while 39 per cent of those surveyed said they view him as an "excellent" or "pretty good" vice-presidential choice.

Romney pollster Neil Newhouse said in a statement that the findings simply reflect the fact that Ryan, the chairman of the House of Representatives budget committee, isn't yet a household name in the United States.

However, previous USA Today/Gallup surveys taken immediately after a vice-presidential pick have yielded more favourable ratings for running mates. Only Dan Quayle, George H. W. Bush's No. 2 in 1988, had lower ratings.

Democrats have reacted with glee to Romney's choice, swiftly pouncing to portray Ryan as an extremist for his proposals to overhaul Medicare, a beloved government program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans over 65.

Conservatives, on the other hand, have lauded Romney for making a bold choice by tapping an innovative thinker who has long insisted the party needs to present big, transformative ideas to the American people.

In their first joint interview on Sunday, Ryan said he and Romney intend to "split up" often and campaign separately in order to "double our efforts."

Looking every inch the "mini-Mitt" in his first joint interview with Romney on "60 Minutes," where both men sported blue blazers, checked shirts and well-tended hairstyles, Ryan once again said politics has been a calling for him.

"I've felt for a while now that our country is in a very perilous situation," said Ryan, a 42-year-old, seven-term congressman.

"And I've done everything I could in my career as chairman of the budget committee to try and make a difference, to tackle this economic and fiscal challenge before it tackles us."

Both men denied suggestions that the Romney campaign had effectively turned the presidential campaign into an ideological battle rather than a referendum on Obama's first term.

Pundits on both the right and left alike have argued that the focus of the campaign will now shift to Ryan's controversial budget proposals, once branded "right-wing social engineering" by fellow Republican Newt Gingrich during his own run for president.

Indeed, a web video released Monday morning by Obama's re-election team focuses on Ryan's Medicare proposals.

"Medicare is a boon to senior citizens," one woman says in the ad, filmed in Florida — a crucial swing state that's home to millions of seniors.

"And without that we choose between food and going to a doctor."

In his "60 Minutes" interview, Ryan seemed well-prepared for that line of attack, telling CBS's Bob Schieffer that his own mother is "a Medicare senior in Florida" and that he is not proposing to reform the program for those already receiving benefits.

Instead, Ryan said, his proposals would shift Medicare over time to a voucher-based system aimed at "preserving" the entitlement program.

Obama welcomed Ryan to the campaign trail on Sunday, calling him a "decent man" but also an "articulate spokesman for Gov. Romney's vision."

"It's a vision," the president added, "that I fundamentally disagree with."

On Monday, Obama's campaign doubled down, branding Romney-Ryan economic proposals "the same top-down economic scheme that crashed our economy and devastated the middle class in the first place."

Obama was slated on Monday to assail Ryan for his opposition to a proposed federal farm bill that would provide disaster relief to farmers and ranchers in the Midwest, currently enduring the worst drought in 50 years.

"I'm told Gov. Romney's new running mate might be around Iowa these next few days. And he's one of those leaders of Congress standing in the way," Obama said in prepared remarks released by the White House.

"So if you happen to see Congressman Ryan, tell him how important this farm bill is to Iowa and our rural communities. It's time to put politics aside and pass it right away."

Ryan, for his part, begins his swing through the state at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, where Romney famously said a year ago: "Corporations are people, my friend." Obama is also scheduled to make an appearance at the fair later in the day.

Romney, meantime, kicks off a bus tour today in Florida with Sen. Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American lawmaker who was himself once considered a potential VP pick but was ultimately deemed too risky a candidate due to the party's anti-immigration base.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2012