Romney Wants His Risky Pick to Play It Safe

Source: AP

Romney Wants His Risky Pick to Play It Safe

GLEN ALLEN, Va. August 18, 2012 (AP)
Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney wants running mate Paul Ryan to play it safe.

The nation's most controversial budget architect, Ryan is often described as the intellectual leader of the House Republican caucus. But Romney's Boston headquarters — so far, at least — seems to prefer that the 42-year-old father of three talks about camping and milking cows instead of the transformational budget proposals that made him a conservative hero.

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"We will not duck the tough issues," Ryan declared in Virginia on Friday. "We will lead."

But Ryan has been directed to avoid taking questions from reporters who travel with his campaign and to agree only to a handful of carefully selected interviews. He is known for sketching budget graphs on napkins to explain his ideas, but this week it was Romney who used a white board during a news conference to help detail his own plan — and he says it's virtually identical to Ryan's.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/romney-risky-pick-play-safe-17032961#.UC-Frt2PW8A