WASHINGTON — Paul Ryan yesterday zinged President Obama by playing his guns and Catholic cards.
“Hey, I am a Catholic deer hunter. I am happy to be clinging to my guns and my religion,” the Republican vice-presidential candidate boasted to voters in blue collar western Pennsylvania.
It was a sharp dig at President Obama, who during the 2008 primary race complained to some wealthy donors that Pennsylvanians weren’t supporting him because they “cling to their guns or religion.”
The elitist tone of the remark haunted Obama in 2008, and he ultimately lost the Pennsylvania Democratic primary election to Hillary Clinton.
Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman and avid sportsman, is expected to help Mitt Romney make inroads with blue-collar voters who could decide the general election this year in key battleground states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.
He also ripped Obama’s economic policies, which he and Romney blame for the continued financial despair gripping the country.
“We have a very clear choice to make this fall,” said Ryan.
“We can go down the path we’ve been on — a nation of debt, a nation of doubt and despair — or we can make a change.”
“We have to get this country on the right track!” Ryan declared to the crowd of more than 2,000 at a family-owned steel-plate manufacturing business near Pittsburgh.
Ryan whipped up the enthusiastic crowd by swinging a Pittsburgh Steelers’ “terrible towel” over his head.
Meanwhile, Obama pivoted away from economic issues to focus on funding education and government-college loans.
He chided Romney for earlier in the campaign saying that high school grads should “shop around” for college financing and maybe borrow money from parents.
“Not everybody has parents who have the money to lend. That may be news to some folks,” Obama told about 3,000 supporters at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.
“The best thing [Romney] can do for you is to tell you to shop around,” Obama said. “That’s it. That’s his plan.”
Obama commiserated with the students, saying that he and First Lady Michelle Obama graduate with “mountains” of student loan debt.
The president slammed Romney for backing the GOP balanced-budget plan Ryan authored. It includes cuts to government Pell Grant scholarships.
“That’s not who we are. That’s not what America is about,” said Obama. “We give everybody a fair shot.”