Ryan Joins Ranks of McCain Campaign Critics

Observing McCain’s 100% Negative Campaign,
Ryan Says He Would Have Taken Different Course   

MADISON – Congressman Paul Ryan, once a potential McCain running-mate, today joined former Governor Tommy Thompson and a growing number of Republicans in taking issue with John McCain’s faltering, negative campaign for president.

 

Following the campaign’s sharp negative turn in the past few weeks, Ryan told the Associated Press that McCain should have stuck to the issues and focused more on his economic and health care plans. “I would have done things differently the last few weeks,” said Ryan, a Janesville Republican.

 

“Paul Ryan is one of the most influential Republican members of Congress,” said Joe Wineke, Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair. “This is just another painful blow to McCain’s dishonorable low-road campaign, which has apparently run itself into a ditch in Wisconsin.”

 

In criticizing the campaign, Ryan joins Thompson, who notoriously told the New York Times he doesn’t know a single person in Wisconsin who is happy with the McCain campaign. Last week, Thompson continued his critique in an interview that aired on WISN-TV’s Up Front with Mike Gousha.  

“In a campaign that is so bitter and has so many accusations in it, it is very hard after the election to forget that and come back together,” said Thompson.

 

McCain’s campaign, in collaboration with the Republican Party of Wisconsin and the Republican National Committee, has been placing automated calls and sending mailers to thousands of households across Wisconsin to spread sleazy, dishonest messages about Barack Obama under the radar. Ironically, this is the same tactic that was used against McCain in 2000, and at the time, he called the shameful automated messages “hate calls.”

 

Both Ryan and Thompson told reporters that McCain has failed to articulate an economic message and both praised Barack Obama for clearly defining an economic message.