Paul Ryan wowed the Republican National Convention on Wednesday with a passionate, occasionally snide and often funny speech to delegates after accepting the party's nomination as Mitt Romney's running mate.
Ryan took to the stage to introduce himself not just to delegates, but to Americans, many of whom had barely heard of him until Romney tapped the Republican party's fiscal restraint guru to be his vice-presidential candidate.
"After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is Gov. Mitt Romney," Ryan said before introducing his wife, Janna, and his three children to the cheering crowd at the Tampa convention centre.
Ryan, whose proposals to reduce the country's massive federal deficit have been met warily by some Americans, took particular aim in his speech at socalled Obamacare, the president's signature piece of legislation that has brought health insurance to millions of previously uninsured Americans.
"The president has declared that the debate over government-controlled health care is over. That will come as news to the millions of Americans who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal Obamacare," Ryan said.
His speech was rife with Obama ridicule. He mocked Obama's recent suggestion that his mistakes in office have involved a failure to communicate.
"He said his job is to 'tell a story to the American people' as if that's the whole problem here? He needs to talk more, and we need to be better listeners?" Ryan said incredulously. "Ladies and gentlemen, these past four years we have suffered no shortage of words in the White House. What's missing is leadership in the White House."
Ryan's speech followed one by Condoleezza Rice, whose rousing remarks prompted immediate specu-lation on the convention floor about a return to politics for George W. Bush's one-time secretary of state.
"The essence of America, that which really unites us, is not ethnicity, or nationality or religion," she said. "It is an idea, and what an idea it is: That you can come from humble circumstances and do great things. That it doesn't matter where you came from, but where you are going."
Unlike New Jersey Chris Christie's speech a night earlier, Rice repeatedly lauded Romney as the man who can return America to greatness. It took Christie more than 15 minutes to make mention of Romney, and his speech about his upbringing was widely con-sidered more an advertisement for a potential run for president in 2016.
The event's daytime agenda was aimed at reaching out to demographics where Republicans are getting pummelled in the polls by the president: women and Hispanics.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American, made the rounds of the morning talk shows to suggest Romney's immigration policies are evolving.
Romney's wife, Ann, joined forces with Janna Ryan at a "Women for Romney" breakfast fundraiser.
Paul Ryan appeared to make a pitch to women, too, calling his mother his "role model" as he briefly became emotional.
