>> and with that, ryan and romney boarded their bus and headed to ashland, virginia, for an afternoon rally. jim acosta is live in ashland. good morning. now that we have gotten our first look at the romney/ryan team together on stage, tell us more about why paul ryan was picked as opposed to the others on the short list. >> well, i think you got a sense of that in the speech earlier this morning. i think mitt romney wanted to change the terms of this debate. i was really looking at some comments he made during his remarks introducing paul ryan and at one point he said very close to the end of the remarks he said, at a time when the president's campaign is taking american politics to new lows, we are going to do things differently. and then he went on to talk about how this campaign is going to be about ideas and the contrast that exists between these two different campaigns.

then paul ryan came out and really went -- you know, sort of drilled deep in his own -- i guess his own philosophy about the national debt and the -- and what he believes is a danger to the country in terms of the national debt. i think we're going to be hearing a lot about that over the coming weeks. this is in paul ryan's bailiwick, this is where he likes to come from. he's the house budget committee chairman, and i think they wanted to lay a marker for the coming debate in this campaign that it will be about the issues and not about mitt romney's business background. i think that is a big driving force behind this pick today. >> where exactly are they headed on this bus tour, by the way? >> reporter: we are right now en route to ashland, virginia, which is in the richmond area. so y so you can sort of look at the major media in this area. they started in the hampton roads area, a big media market and maybe the truest swing

section of the state of virginia and now we're heading up to the richmond area which is also a decent sized media market and then end the day in manassas, and northern virginia area is the make or break area of virginia that will perhaps determine who wins this race. >> did you get the sense that even though paul ryan was on the stage for a short time he's already helped mitt romney in some way? i mean, his youthful vigor, he had great energy. what did you make of how he did? >> reporter: i think it was a well executed speech. i think it was an extremely well executed event. there was that misfire that mitt romney had at the very beginning when he referred to paul ryan as the next president of the united states and then you saw mitt romney go up there after he introduced paul ryan, and he said, no, no, the next vice president of the united states.

he said even i make some mistakes but not with this pick. mitt romney acknowledging that he does from time to time have his share of verbal slipups. i think that with paul ryan brings to this table is a certainty for conservatives. there are a lot of conservatives out there who are sort of clamoring for this kind of bold pick. and mitt romney is giving them what they wanted. i'll caution you with that. there are some democratic operatives out there saying mitt romney, he sort of kowtowed to conservatives out there. i think in romney's defense, the romney debate would point out this decision was made on -- around august 1, according to the campaign. that was when mitt romney first called paul ryan to set up a meeting and then at that subsequent meeting according to the campaign, that is when this deal was sealed and paul ryan, you know, ultimately decided to jump on this campaign. but if there were conservatives out there who had any doubt that mitt romney is, you know, more

hook, line and sinker with the conservative movement, he made that i think very clear today with his choice of paul ryan. you can't make a more clear choice when it comes to a running mate than paul ryan in that regard. >> no question about that. jim acosta, thank you very much. appreciate your reporting this morning. so where does congressman paul ryan stand on the important issues of the day? he's most known for his conservative budget principles. in july 2009 he proposed the road map for america's future, an economic plan that would end medicare as we know it and privatize social security. at first he got push back from his own party because republicans worried it would scare away senior voters. former republican house speaker newt gingrich even called it right wing social engineering but he's become the darling of tea party supporters. ryan voted to ban federal health coverage on abortion. he's a leading voice against the obama administration and he voted no on the stimulus plan. he took on the white house over

the affordable care act and wants to repeal obama care. on guns, he's backed by the nra. he voted to decrease the gun-buying waiting period from three days to one day. on privacy he voted to allow electronic surveillance of americans without a warrant. on defense he's a hawk. he voted to send america to war in iraq and voted against ending the war in afghanistan. and it looks like many americans aren't sure who paul ryan is. according to a new cnn/orc international poll, 54% of americans don't know enough about him to form an opinion. 27% view him favorably and 19% don't like him. john king looks at the political career of romney's vp pick. >> we want -- >> reporter: for paul ryan debating joe biden might feel like a demotion. >> my question is why not start freezing spending now and will you help us get a vote on it in the house? >> let me respond to the two specific questions but i want to

just push back a little bit on the underlying premise about us increasing spending by 84%. >> the discretionary spending t bills that congress signs and you sign into law, that has increased 84%. >> we'll have -- we'll have a longer debate on the budget numbers there. all right? >> reporter: ryan is the gop's numbers guy. the house budget committee chairman who isn't afraid to say in his view the only way back to fiscal sanity is to dramatically shrink government and fundamentally change medicare. >> if you don't address the issues now they'll steam roll us as a country. the issue is the more you delay fixing these problems the much uglier the solutions are going to have to be. >> reporter: in short he's a lightning rod. >> it would be a bold and a risky choice. it's hard for me to see mitt romney who's played it safe making that kind of gamble. >> reporter: there are upsides. it would energize the gop base sometimes suspicious of romney. ryan is an energetic debater and

campaigner and at just 42 he would add youthful vig tore the ticket. close friends like mark green say ryan would help romney in wisconsin and across the midwest. >> i think he does get wisconsin but i think more importantly he gets that sort of blue collar conservativism that i think is the heart of the republican party. >> reporter: the house gop budget bears his name. up to his now, romney has tried to make this a referendum on the president. >> the president's policy is not creating jobs. >> reporter: there's no escaping this -- >> ryan plan to end medicare as we know it must be taken off the table. >> reporter: other potential downsides, ryan has never run statewide. he has no foreign policy experience and some will question whether a 42-year-old house member is ready to be commander in chief. >> one of the stars of the republican future over the next 10 to 20 years. whether he's ready at this moment, only the campaign trail could tell.

and he's gonna get -- i will tell you he'll take a beating. >> reporter: ryan says family history makes him a fitness fanatic, leading house colleagues in grueling cross-training workouts. >> my dad died of a heart attack at 55, my grandfather 57. i have had this incentive to stay healthy. >> reporter: and an avid hunter. as green learned one day when he sent an e-mail from his post as ambassador to tanzania. >> i got this terse response saying i'm sitting in the deer stand. it's hunting season. leave me alone. >> reporter: he's a self-described nerd, but don't underestimate his ambition or competitive streak. it's clear if he had his druthers he'd rather debate the president. >> i love the idea of barack obama. i love the fact that we have elected an african-american man as our president. i think that's a really cool thing. indon't like the ideas coming from barack obama. >> reporter: but it is romney who will share the biggest fall debate stage. >> governor romney, hopefully the next president of the united states of america.

>> among republicans 49% say like paul ryan and 45% say they don't know enough about him. and you can bet one man who's been keeping a close eye on how all this is playing out is president obama. he is headed back to his own stomping ground of chicago to celebrate his birthday this weekend and holding a number of fund-raisers, but a ticket to one of the events doesn't come cheap. $40,000 for one person. back in may, congressman paul ryan was being coy about being on the ticket. what a difference a couple of months make. >> if mitt romney asked you to run as his vice president, would you agree to do so? >> next question. you know, that's somebody else's decision, months away. that's a conversation i need to have with my wife before i have it all with you. >> fair enough. yes, you do! don't! i've washed a few cupcake tins in my day...

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i tell mike what i can spend. i do my best to make that work. we're driving safely. and sue saved money on brakes. now that's personal pricing. many americans awoke this morning wondering just who is paul ryan, except for the washington political scene he is little known outside of wisconsin. he hails from janesville, a

small town between milwaukee and madison. he is best known for his knowledge of the u.s. budget. he is the republican's leader on fiscal matters including developing his controversial road map for america's future which would drastically change the medicare program and privatize social security. he represents the first congressional district, a conservative-leaning swing district that's voted for both republicans and democrats for president. now, in his seventh term, he was first elected in 1998 at the age of 28. what's currently the chairman and serves on the ways and means committee. he graduated from miami university in ohio which sits in house speaker john boehner's congressional district and he's married with three children. let's talk more about mitt romney's choice of paul ryan as his running mate. what it may mean for the race going forward. joining me now from washington is wolf blitzer and cnn's

political analyst ron brownstein. your thoughts on seeing these two guys together on stage, officially running mates for first time. anything surprise you as well about this choice? >> i think it's a formidable team. i think they'll be a strong team going forward. i think it will dramatically energize that conservative republican base. they want to turn out the vote in these swing states, whether florida, virginia, north carolina, some of the other swing states, colorado to be sure. this will energize a lot of those conservative -- conservatives who weren't 100% sure that mitt romney was one of them and paul ryan they love. so it will do very well for the turnout that conservative base of the republican party. on the other hand, it will energize the democrats as well because they don't like the ryan plan when it comes to medicare. medicare reform for people who are under 55 years old. this will energize the democrats as well. it's going to be a substantive debate. i think paul ryan and joe biden

will have a good, serious debate in october. >> some people are thinking that romney would wait until the olympics were over, but why do you think he chose today? >> i think it was the bus tour and, you know, they have also had a bad couple weeks in polling. had a rough trip abroad. a good opportunity to change the subject. look, the ryan pick is a high risk, high reward kind of maneuver here by mitt romney. on the one hand he brings as we saw today energy and a sense of mission to a campaign that's often seen more powerpoint than passion from mitt romney. on the other hand, as wolf notes he really does play into the obama campaign's goal from the outset has been as much as possible to shift this away from solely a retrospective referendum on the president's performance toward a forward looking choice between two competing visions. mitt romney had embraced the ryan budget. putting ryan on the ticket obviously elevates those issues

and does this push this further in the direction of being a choice election. >> wolf, paul ryan is certainly a darryling of the tea party which brings up the during darling of the tea party. won't it make it harder for romney to get a chunk of the vote they need to win? >> that's a good question. what happens with the 8%, 9% or 10% independent vote that's undecided or swayable? i don't know what it does. i think a lot of people don't know enough about paul ryan yet. those of us who work in washington, interviewed him, we know something about him. for most americans they don't know anything about paul ryan. they're about to learn a whole lot about this 42-year-old congressman. we'll see how it plays with the independent voters who have a relatively open mind. i don't know yet. maybe ron has a better sense of how independents will react. >> can i add one point on that?

>> absolutely. >> as congressman green noted in john king's piece, the heart of the modern republican coalition is much more in blue collar than white collar america. they run best among older whites and blue collar whites. they get over 60% of their votes in 2008. each of those groups. the tension is that those voters while generally anti-government in polling are clearly resistant to changes in entitlements that benefit the middle class, particularly medicare. and the ryan budget as wolf noted, that has not polled well with the blue collar and older whites who romney will need overwhelming margins among. and has been generating overwhelming margins among. so i think the tension is within the republican coalition and among those down scale independents that have been trending republican in resend years, will they stay with this ryan budget? >> in terms of the choices that romney had before him, if you look at the short list, you had governor pawlenty from

minnesota, you had senator portman from ohio, and then they picked the congressman from wisconsin. wolf, do you think that they were dead set, the republican, on trying to go after a blue collar industrial rust belt type candidate? >> it looked like the three finalists all from the midwest, portman from ohio as you say, pawlenty from minnesota, and ryan from wisconsin, this is an area that if romney is going to be the next president of the united states, he really needs to win. especially ohio. ohio is very much in play. wisconsin, i don't know how much he's going to bring paul ryan to wisconsin. i assume he's going to help him in wisconsin. wisconsin did elect a republican governor, scott walker, in 2010. there's been a lot of controversy in wisconsin. been a long time since wisconsin in the presidential race went for a republican. i assume that romney thinks paul ryan is going to help him in wisconsin and maybe bring him over the top although i think that is still very much an uphill struggle. >> going to be very interesting

to watch. wolf blitzer, ron brownstein, thank you. we're watching other news as well this morning. hillary clinton is in turkey talking syria. we'll tell you who she is meeting and what exactly is on the table today. you do what you do... because it matters. at hp we don't just believe in the power of technology. we believe in the power of people when technology works for you. to dream. to create. to work. if you're going to do something. make it matter.

welcome back. 24 minutes past the hour. checking some other news, secretary of state hillary clinton is in turkey discussing the crisis in syria. she has been meeting with turkish leaders and syrian opposition activists today. >> i came away very impressed by these young activists and very committed to increasing the assistance we are already providing several of those present have already received support from the united states. as you know, we are providing $25 million in nonlethal aid. mostly communications to civil society and activists. >> at least 30 people were killed in syria today. it's been a deadly wake in afghanistan. three u.s. marines were shot

dead last night by an afghan worker. it happened on a military base in the district in southern afghanistan. in the past four days, six american soldiers have been killed in rogue attacks. residents living near a sink hole in southern louisiana will have to wait about another month to return home. this sink hole that you see here bubbling away prompted evacuations and even swallowed a 100-foot tree. officials want know if an underground salt cavern may be the problem here. it's 50 feet deep, but in one corner it actually goes down more than 420 feet. mitt romney had named paul ryan as his vice presidential pick. we'll have more details on him and his policies straight ahead. sorry, my liege. honestly. our sales have increased by 20%. what is this mystical device i see before me? it's an ultrabook. he signed the purchase order.

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welcome back. he is the man everyone is talking about today. paul ryan, mitt romney's vp pick. but who is paul ryan and what are his political views? gloria borger has more on that. >> the ryan road map is the way to the cliff and then over the cliff. >> the ryan proposal obviously

would destroy our government. >> i gave fear up for lent this year. >> you're not joking. you're not kidding me, right? >> no. >> how do you do that? >> well, i'm working on it. >> until recently, paul ryan was an unknown budget wonk. now he's famous and includes the most sweeping plan to cut government spending this decades. >> there's a big test for this country. and whether we apply our country's principles, liberty, freedom, free enterprise, government by concept of governance, all the core principles are being tested right now. and you can't have fear if you try to fix these problems. you know, that's sort of a shoot the messenger strategy these days. >> you're the messenger. >> i'm the messenger. you can't fear that. >> so who is paul ryan? >> i'm fifth generation from janesville. >> the path from the union-heavy

small town in wisconsin led to a conservative pedigree. first as a republican congressional staffer. >> i'm paul ryan. candidate for congress. >> then with a long shot bid for a house seat, 13 years ago. >> well, paul ryan is maybe a rare thing in washington. he is what he seems. >> bill bennett is a conservative talk radio host and cnn contributor. he was one of ryan's mentors alongside with jack kemp in the early 1990s. >> he is a guy with -- without guile, without pretense. he likes to hang out with actuaries for relaxation, which is -- >> who doesn't? >> which is a funny thing. he hunts elk with a bow and arrow. >> he's had the deficit in his sights for years. but even republicans steered clear of some of his more controversial budget ideas. that is, until the tea party became the rage.

>> i think it is because of the circumstances of what happened that the recession -- the resulting binge and spending that occurred after it and passing entitlements like obama care and then the electoral reaction to that brought these ideas into the mainstream. >> because it's not like you had an extreme makeover. >> no, no. i have been doing the same thing for a long time. >> ryan became popular by pushing the unpopular. things like killing his colleagues' pork projects or trying to revamp social security and eventually change medicare into a program of vouchers for private insurers. so that's not only touching the third rail of politics as it's called, it's -- >> like a koala bear on the third rail. that's what i used to say. here's the problem. if you don't address these issues now, they're going to steam roll us as a country. and the issue is the more you delay fixing these problems the much uglier the solutions are going to have to be.

51% of medicare is funded with borrowed money. so if we're going to keep that promise you have to change it for our generation. you have to change it for the next generation. >> to be a little melodramatic, it would kill people. no question. >> his ideas infuriate liberals like paul krugman. >> the cuts in medicare that he's proposing, the replacement of medicare by a voucher system would in the end mean that tens of millions of older americans would not be able to afford essential health care. so that counts as cruelty to me. >> ryan scoffs at the idea and his fellow republicans have joined in. making the ryan budget the coin of the realm. just ask newt gingrich who once dared take it on. >> i don't think right wing social engineering is any more desirable than left wing social engineering. >> gingrich called ryan to take it back. >> and basically, he said he was

wrong. >> ryan wants to reform the tax code. as for new taxes, no way. not even if a deal included $10 of spending cuts for every dollar of new taxes. the public wants compromise and wants solution where democrats and republicans work together and they see, okay, republicans won't accept -- >> see, the kind of compromise all i hear about these days is we take the tax increases and they do a little less spending. what is the policy? see, this is ridiculous talking about ratio, where's obama care, where's medicare and medicaid reform? >> when the president proposed a plan to cut the deficit by taxes the wealthy, ryan was first to call it class warfare and he's convinced the president is just wasting valuable time. >> we're in the middle of a lost decade. >> that is paul ryan, the politician. but what is he like as a person? we'll have that for you. [ male announcer ] this is the at&t network.

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welcome back to cnn saturday morning. paul ryan is a politician, but he's also a husband and a father. here's gloria borger with more. >> and ryan is a man in a hurry. in washington, he bunks in his congressional office. it's cheaper, near work and closer to the house gym which is good since he's a fitness buff who got some of his colleagues hooked on a grueling exercise routine called p-90-x. >> it's a great workout. >> in a way he owes his devotion to fitness to his father. in particular, one day when the younger ryan was still a teen.

your dad was 55 when he died and you were 16. >> yep. >> how did that affect you? you say you're more -- >> yeah, i mean, i was a young kid working at mcdonald's that summer. my mom was out visiting my sister who got a job in denver. you know, went to wake him up in the morning, he was -- he wasn't alive. so i had to learn to sink or swim. my grandmother who had alzheimer's moved in with us at the time. my mom went back to school to learn a skill. i did a lot of growing up very fast. it made me very -- i'd say initiative prone. live life to the fullest because you never know how long it will last. >> but you had the opportunity to run for president at age 41 if you're in a hurry. and you said -- >> nice, nice boomerang on that. >> and you said no. >> sure, because i think there are other good people who can do

this job, but there are other good people who can't raise my kids. >> that didn't stop the push to try to draft ryan to run. the argument is simple -- he's proven he can take on the president. >> well -- >> is this the difference in philosophy. >> no, no, look -- >> it is. >> this is an important point. >> bill bennett says that ryan really flashed on to the president's radar after some fiery exchanges at his health care summit last year. >> you can tell barack obama took notice. he took the measure of him. paul ryan's -- he's in his brain a little bit. >> actually, a lot. the white house seated paul ryan right up front at the president's budget speech in april and then proceeded to denounce his plan. >> it ends medicare as we know it. >> what i was thinking going into the speech, you know what, we're getting divided government to work. we're actually compromising, getting things done. so what i got out of that,

political mode, demagoguery. and try to sort of nullify the notion there's an alternative path for this country. >> ryan has settled in as a hero to republicans and devil to the democrats. he's okay with that. >> they had an ad of me pushing a woman off the cliff or something like that. >> doesn't bother you? >> no, not really. we have a normal life here in janesville. my wife and i have we three beautiful kids, we have soccer on saturdays, cub scouts. we have a normal life like everybody else. i go to washington four days a week. i call it silly place, two different kind of worlds. if we don't tackle these big problems, they're going to tackle us. >> washington, the silly place. with the grueling months of campaigning ahead he may have far less family time though. >> my hopes are even higher that romney will win this election.

>> with the selection of ryan, we see a choice election. we see an ideological choice. >> people already reacting to the choice of paul ryan. we'll hear some more of our reporters next. comes with some, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment. we're america's natural gas. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds )

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[♪...] so what do people think of mitt romney's choice? our cnn ireporters are already chiming in. >> he's very well-spoken, very knowledgeable. articulate. and he brings a lot to the table. i think he's going to make an excellent running mate and with him next to romney my hopes are even higher that romney will win this election. >> with the selection of ryan, we see a choice election. we see an ideological choice.

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presumptive presidential candidate mitt romney is on the bus tour with his newly announced running mate, congressman paul ryan of wisconsin. he announced his vice presidential pick in norfolk, virginia, this morning but he misspoke. listen to this. >> join me in welcoming the next president of the united states, paul ryan. every now and then i'm known to make a mistake. i did not make a mistake with this guy. but i can tell you this. he's going to be the next vice president of the united states.

>> long before his selection as romney's number two, ryan seemed on the preparing for the role, hitting the campaign trail with the republican presidential candidate at events like this one in milwaukee. the wisconsin native is in his seventh term in congress. ryan who resisted calls for his own presidential run this year spoke to our chief political correspondent and host of cnn "state of the union" candy crowley about the kind of person who can help win the white house. >> usually the number two on the ticket helps to balance out out the number one. what kind of number two do you think mitt romney needs, what does he mitt romney needs? what does he need balancing out for or of? >> whatever he thinks helps him win the fall and helps him govern. honestly i don't know if it's the geography thing. there are a lot of conventionalisms. what i think matters is, is he putting together the right kind of team to take the country --

to offer the country a choice of two futures and getting somebody ready for the job who can help him govern? so i have no clue who that is going to be or where they come from. i don't see the point on speculating all that. we have jobs to do where we are. i'm focused on that. so let's get this primary taken care of and then everybody can worry and speculate about the rest of it. >> let me try one more time on this. would you, for instance, go for someone who is a little more working class. when he was selecting a number two, they felt he seemed a bit removed from people and they wanted someone who spoke to blue-collar workers. does mitt romney need that as a number two? >> i'm really not the political pundit type. i'm very much of a policy person.

i'm focused on doing my job. it's not my forte to get into that. right now my job is being the congressman for the first congressional district in wisconsin. as budget chairman, trying to prevent a debt crisis from sinking our economy. that's what i'm focused on. >> cnn newsroom starts at the top of the hour. fredricka is here to tell us what's coming up. >> paul ryan, running mate announcement. was it a bold move? will this be a distinctive quality? we'll be talking about that. and then our legal guys will be with us as they always are. we're going to talk about facebook and when you like someone are you protected by the first amendment. there's an interesting case that involves a young man who liked someone who turned out to be an opponent of his boss who was running for office and then he got fired. so what are the protections as

it pertains to the first amendment and social media in general. then we'll also talk about cheer leading and whether cheer leading on the university level is protected by title nine. that's another case our guys are going to explore. and the olympics, this is the final weekend and there's been a lot of expressed disappointment by lolo jones, the hurdler. a lot of critics and fans have talked about her and her journey there at the olympic games. i talk with her about what she calls her heartbreak and then she also talks about social media and how it has opened up a new can of worms as it pertains to how olympians respond to their events and having direct dialogue with fans. >> you have been following the olympics in london. >> yes. i got a chance to go there with my dad and met up with a lot of olympians. there he is along with my brother. we took the journey to london to

reunite with his olympic buds and to really reconnect with the city where he made history 64 years ago. >> how did it feel for him to be ba back? >> he said i haven't felt that good in so long. >> and you got to do it with him. >> i hope i forget nothing about it. it was great. >> he hasn't been to the olympics in a long time. >> his last was beijing. but prior to that it was atlanta. but because of his health, it's been a little difficult. but this was so special. >> what a nice trip for you. we look forward to it. thanks. could the announcement be the clawback at the polls? why the ryan pick might be the ticket to turn it around. easie, less-expensive option than using a traditional lawyer? well, legalzoom came up with a better way. we took the best of the old and combined it with modern technology. together you get quality services on your terms, with total customer support. legalzoom documents have been accepted in all 50 states,

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polls suggest things aren't going as well as they could for mitt romney. president obama has expanded his lead and an abc news survey says romney is "laboring under the l lowest personal popularity ratings for a presumptive presidential nominee in midsummer polls." dana bash reports on romney's slipping numbers and if a vp pick is enough to turn things around. ♪ oh beautiful for spacious skies ♪ >> if you turned on the tv, it's likely you saw this brutal attack ad on romney.

it ran 12,402 times in the last half of july. not including local cable. it's the crown jewel of the obama campaign's summer strategy to define mitt romney as an out of touch businessman with something to hide. >> let him prove he has paid taxes because he hasn't. >> reporter: all that plus self-inflicted wounds like questioning the readiness for the olympics and it appears to be taking a toll in a crucial area for voters, likability. romney's unfavorable rating climbed 6 points over the last month with registered voters and skyrocketed 12 points among those independent voters. and president obama opened up a 7-point lead over romney. one month ago it was just 3 points, a statistical dead heat. privately, frustrated senior republicans continue to complain

to cnn that the romney camp can't find its foot figure an economic environment that should be devastating for the president. now team romney is trying to get back on offense launching a bus tour entirely on the president's turf. virginia, north carolina, florida, ohio, all states the president won in 2008 up for grabs now. >> it's good to be with you guys. >> reporter: the romney camp is trying to course correct not with just where the candidate goes but what he says. streamline his economic message and reclaim the idea of romney as a businessman as positive. >> i know what it's like to hire people and make ends meet down the road. >> reporter: and trying the shred the president's calling card, his credibility and character. like this new ad. it was an ad cnn found to be inaccurate. >> what does it say about a

president's character when his campaign tries to use the tragedy of a woman's death for political gain? doesn't america deserve better? >> the romney campaign is really hoping the narrative will change with their vp pick and the convention in tampa. officials expect to get a significant bounce from both, but if they get a bounce in the polls, it will defy recent history. in the past two election cycles neither went up more than 2% after the conventions. dana bash, cnn, washington. >> we have had such a busy morning here at cnn. cnn newsroom continues now. >> passing the baton to us now. thank you so much. have a great day. just a few hours ago, mitt romney ended all speculation about his vice presidential pick by revealing his choice. you know it by now.

paul ryan of wisconsin. romney made that announcement at a rally on the u.s.s. congress. >> he's become a leader in the republican party. he understands the fiscal challenges facing america, our exploding definite silts and crushing debt and the disaster that awaits us if we don't change course. he combines a profound sense of responsibility for what we owe the next generation with an unbounded optimism in america's future and understanding of all the wonderful things the american people can do. >> i worked closely with republicans as well as democrats to advance an agenda of economic growth and job creation. i'm proud to stand with a man who understands what it takes to foster job creation in our economy. someone who knows from experience that if you have a

small business, you did build that. >> after that rally, ryan and romney boarded their bus and headed to ashland, virginia, for an afternoon rally. as cnn's political reporter jim acosta arrives, he joins us by phone. what does the romney camp think he will bring to the ticket? >> reporter: i just got an e-mail from a senior romney advisor, fredricka, who e-mailed me some guidance as to what the thinking was for mitt romney in making that vice presidential pick. obviously, there is some controversy. there will be questions about the proposals that paul ryan made when he was budget committee chairman. and this advisor tells me, quote, a vision of the country on the economy and on spending was