The brand new Romney-Ryan ticket experienced quite a Sunday -- addressing packed rallies in North Carolina, sitting down for a joint interview on 60 Minutes, then wrapping up in Wisconsin for an humongous homecoming rally for Paul Ryan. Official estimates pegged the crowd at roughly 13,000 in Waukesha. This is what enthusiasm looks like:
Ryan got the crowd energized with a sentimental ode to the state that he and his family have called home for generations. He wiped away tears of emotion as the Badger State audience showered him with cheers. After ceding the microphone to Mitt Romney, a handful of Left-wing hecklers attempted to shout over the Republican candidate. The large crowd drowned them out with chants of "USA," then Romney let loose. He directly chided one of the disruptive attendees, then parlayed the rebuke into a stinging indictment of Barack Obama's relentlessly negative and dishonest campaign. The gathered throng erupted:
(Video removed, due to autoplay annoyance. Click through to watch)
"There's no question that if you follow the campaign of Barack Obama, he's going to do everything in his power to make this the lowest, meanest negative campaign in history. We're not going to let that happen. This is going to be a campaign about ideas...Mr. President, take your campaign out of the gutter; let's talk about the real issue that America faces."
Romney proceeded to run down a litany of Obama's policy failures and promised to turn the country around, if elected. This is the most focused and electric I've ever seen Mitt Romney, having covered him for more than a year. The Ryan pick -- reportedly made over some Romney advisers' early objections -- has galvanized the candidate, as well as the electorate. The GOP ticket has raised more than $5 million just online since Ryan's Saturday morning roll-out. Game on.
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