Mitt Romney shows new energy after Paul Ryan pick
(CBS News) The newly-minted team of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan was on the move Sunday, campaigning in North Carolina and Wisconsin, but they also sought to address voters nationwide, with an interview on Sunday's edition of 60 minutes.
The Republican convention starts two weeks from Monday. Greeted by the largest crowds of his campaign, Romney showed a new energy and heightened focus with his new number two, and Ryan, talking to reporters on the campaign plane, was boldly confident.
"We're going to win this campaign," Ryan said. "We've got the wind behind us and I'm really excited about this race."
The surprise announcement Saturday came just 10 days after Romney decided on Ryan, keeping such a closely guarded secret, known only a handful of people-involved a fair amount of subterfuge.
Flying to meet Romney last week near Boston, Ryan was essentially in disguise, wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap through the airport. And to get to Virginia for Saturday's announcement, he sneaked out the back door of the house and through the woods to catch his ride.
Conservatives cheered the pick, which also has refocused the campaign into a serious debate about runaway spending, spiraling deficits and a broken tax code
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"We can do better than this. We can stay on this path or change this thing and get the country back on the right track," Ryan said on the campaign trail.
The pick also refocused the Obama Campaign, which went on the offensive. On Face the Nation, adviser Stephanie Cutter blasted Ryan's budget plan, which would cut spending and reform Medicare.
"It says something about Mitt Romney that he chose someone who has a budget that it really would be the end of Medicare as we know it, would increase costs on senior and throw them into the private market," Cutter said.
Romney wasn't backing down from the fight.
"I think it's immoral for us to pass on burdens to the next generation. Of the few that stood up and fought for principles, fought to put the person back on track is the man I picked for my running mate," Romney said.
After a big rally Sunday night in Ryan's home state of Wisconsin, the two will part ways. Ryan heads to Iowa and Romney to Florida, a key state where Ryan's position on Medicare now moves front and center, and the Obama campaign is ready.
