Paul Ryan Hits Pennsylvania, Sen. Pat Toomey Predicts State Will Go Red
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Scott Olson/Getty Images(MIDDLETOWN, Pa.) — Just 72 hours before Election Day, Paul Ryan dropped in on Pennsylvania Saturday, the third time he’s done so since Mitt Romney selected him as his running mate.
The Romney campaign says it is expanding the map, and states such as Pennsylvania and Minnesota are now in play for the GOP ticket, but polls still show the president ahead in both places. Although polls have tightened in recent weeks, they still show a three- to five-point lead for President Obama. Both campaigns and their allies, including super PACS, spent $16.7 million in Pennsylvania, according to ad-trackers at the Campaign Media Analysis Group.
Ryan was introduced by Gov. Tom Corbett, former Gov. Tom Ridge and Sen. Pat Toomey, and was greeted by huge cheers from a crowd of about 2,000 when they walked into the airplane hangar rally at the Harrisburg airport. They all predicted this state, which Obama won by 10 points in 2008, would flip.
“Can I just tell you how red Pennsylvania’s gonna be on Tuesday?” Toomey, wearing a red jacket, said. “Because I know how red it’s gonna, it’s gonna be this red, OK [points to red jacket]. This is the color of Pennsylvania on Tuesday.”
Toomey, who once shared a house with Ryan in Washington, D.C., said, “It is happening folks. It’s happening all across the country,” but he was still cautious.
“It’s all on our side, but let me stress this,” Toomey said. “There is still nothing inevitable about a victory on Tuesday. We’ve got to make it happen, and we got to make it happen here in Pennsylvania. And we know we can do it. I mean a state that elected me statewide can elect Gov. Romney as the president of the United States that’s for sure, right?”
Corbett, also in a red jacket, playing off his state’s nickname said, “We are the Keystone State to this nation and we are the Keystone State to this election.”
Ryan, in his Red North Face jacket, said if he and Romney are elected, they will make a “covenant between us and the people whose votes we seek.
“Mitt Romney and I are making this commitment because this is a compact, a contract,” Ryan said.
The Obama campaign isn’t buying that Pennsylvania is really in play for the GOP ticket, calling its efforts in the state ”a desperate hunt for a path to 270 electoral votes.”
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