Romney Chooses Ryan, Pushing Fiscal Issues to the Forefront

The selection of Mr. Ryan, the chief architect of the Republican Party’s plan for tax and spending cuts and an advocate of reshaping the Medicare program of health insurance for retirees, was an effort to reset the race with President Obama after a withering assault on Mr. Romney by Democrats.

The decision instantly made the campaign seem bigger and more consequential, with the size and role of the federal government squarely at the center of the debate. It was a choice intended to galvanize the Republican base and represented a clear tactical shift by Mr. Romney, who until now had been singularly focused on weak job growth since Mr. Obama took office.

“There are a lot of people in the other party who might disagree with Paul Ryan,” Mr. Romney said in announcing his vice-presidential candidate. “I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t respect his character and judgment.”

When Mr. Ryan bounded onto the stage to join Mr. Romney, against a backdrop of the retired battleship Wisconsin, he carried a generational message; at 42, he is 23 years younger than Mr. Romney and is the same age as Mr. Romney’s oldest son. Neither man has military experience or much background in foreign policy.

The announcement, which had been kept secret by the Romney campaign until the final hours, opened a weekend tour of swing states that is to continue on Sunday in North Carolina and Wisconsin. The candidates and their families are traveling together to showcase the new partnership, which they branded “America’s Comeback Team.”

For Mr. Romney, the decision is one of the boldest moves of his presidential candidacy, which has been guided by a do-no-harm strategy. It promised to energize conservatives, who had been eagerly lobbying for Mr. Ryan and who see his budget as the key to unlocking the economy’s potential for growth.

Mr. Obama, who has frequently sparred with Mr. Ryan, waved to reporters as he left the White House on Saturday but did not answer questions about his Republican rivals. But his advisers said he was surprised by the decision. His campaign and the Democratic Party seized on the choice and sought to define the Republican ticket in stark terms, as two men who would strip health coverage for retirees and favor the wealthy.

As Mr. Ryan addressed a crowd of more than 2,000 admirers in Norfolk, he said that the nation was on an “unsustainable path” and that Republicans would not be deterred by what he said were Democratic scare tactics. It was the largest stage yet for Mr. Ryan, a native of Janesville, Wis., who was elected to Congress at age 28 and has supported some of the spending measures that helped contribute to the federal budget deficit deplored by conservatives.

“The commitment Mitt Romney and I make to you is this,” Mr. Ryan said, smiling broadly during much of his address. “We won’t duck the tough issues; we will lead. We won’t blame others; we will take responsibility. And we won’t replace our founding principles; we will reapply them.”

In introducing Mr. Ryan, Mr. Romney mistakenly called him “the next president of the United States.” He left the stage, but quickly returned to correct himself, saying, “Every now and then I tend to make a mistake, but I did not make a mistake with this guy.” Mr. Ryan, who had been urged by conservatives to run for president, called Mr. Romney “the right man to lead America back to prosperity and greatness.” He criticized the Obama administration and declared: “We’re in a different, and dangerous, moment. We’re running out of time — and we can’t afford four more years of this.”

The selection of Mr. Ryan means that this campaign is the first in 80 years in which no candidate of either major political party has served in the military. Mr. Romney, a Mormon, and Mr. Ryan, a Catholic, also represent a new era in presidential politics: neither are Protestants.

The two men share an easy rapport and a love of PowerPoint presentations and policy details.

In choosing his running mate, Mr. Romney was looking to elevate a presidential race with a candidate most likely to provide the biggest jolt. It is a gamble, his aides acknowledged, but one they believe is far less risky than Senator John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin four years ago. Several advisers said that as the author of the party’s central budgetary approach, Mr. Ryan helped make their campaign look “big,” after months of running a race remarkably absent of specific policy proposals.

But in making his choice, Mr. Romney took political ownership of a budget that even some Republicans worry could be a liability in November. Mr. Ryan has proposed sweeping changes in entitlement programs like Medicaid and Medicare, which insure more than 100 million people and whose costs account for more than one-fifth of the federal budget. The selection suggested that Mr. Romney has settled on a strategy of maximizing his support among conservatives rather than trying to win over independent and centrist voters.

While Mr. Romney has pledged to “protect Medicare and Social Security,” his embrace of Mr. Ryan makes it difficult to distance himself from the well-established plans of his running mate. But the campaign suggested it would try to draw a distinction on Medicare, distributing talking points to Republicans that included the question, “Does this mean Mitt Romney is adopting the Paul Ryan plan?” (The answer: He applauds it “for going in the right direction” but will be putting together his own budget.)

A budget debate that has largely resided in Washington suddenly exploded into bigger view with Mr. Ryan’s selection. Democrats seemed just as exuberant with the choice as Republicans. Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, argued that the Republican ticket “would end Medicare as we know it,” a preview of the messages that will play out in what will be the most expensive presidential campaign in history.

The announcement concluded a four-month search, conducted in public and private, with Mr. Romney inviting governors and members of Congress to campaign at his side to gauge his comfort with them. Recently, conservative leaders have loudly urged Mr. Romney to pick Mr. Ryan, but most Republicans assumed Mr. Romney would go with someone seen as safer.

Advisers said Saturday that Mr. Romney had called Mr. Ryan with his offer on Aug. 1, almost immediately upon arriving home from a trip to Britain, Israel and Poland. That detail, which was confirmed by an associate close to Mr. Ryan, deflated speculation that Mr. Romney made his choice in reaction to an outcry that broke out last week, most notably on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, which argued forcefully on behalf of Mr. Ryan.

Mr. Romney called the other finalists on Friday evening, aides said, and thanked them for their cooperation in the vetting process and their help with his campaign. He did not tell them his choice, but word began spreading overnight that Mr. Ryan had emerged as the lone contender.

Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, who was passed over four years ago by Senator John McCain, wished Mr. Ryan well on Saturday. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who was also seen as a top prospect, said Mr. Ryan was a “great choice.”

The selection was announced as Mr. Romney moves into a critical period leading to his nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., at the end of the month. His standing in several battleground states has fallen over the summer, after an aggressive effort by the Obama campaign to define him on their terms. Republicans hoped the vice-presidential announcement would start the race anew, as well as help make Mr. Ryan’s native Wisconsin more competitive.

But Mr. Ryan will face questions about his readiness to be president. He has no foreign policy experience and has not spent significant time in the private sector, but the Romney campaign is counting on his youthful charisma and intellect to sustain him through a bruising presidential campaign.

“We’re not going to besmirch the office of the presidency by succumbing to the kind of attacks and vile charges that are coming from the Democrats,” Mr. Romney said during a stop in Ashland, Va., as he and Mr. Ryan campaigned across the state.

The choice heartened senior Republicans, some of whom have worried that Mr. Romney’s campaign has become mired in the often small back-and-forth with the Obama campaign without asserting a positive vision.

“He had two decisions to make: Governing or political, and bold or comfortable,” Karl Rove, the Republican strategist, said Saturday. “And he decided to go governing and bold.”

Mr. Romney’s rapport with Mr. Ryan was on display again on Saturday as they locked arms after walking out to the soaring music of the “Air Force One” film soundtrack. Mr. Romney wore a tie without a jacket and Mr. Ryan wore a jacket without a tie.

Mr. Romney, who is not known for his warmth, patted Mr. Ryan on the back 10 times. When Mr. Ryan finished his remarks, Mr. Romney whispered a word into his ear. “Perfect,” he said.