Romney Names Paul Ryan as Running Mate [VIDEO]

It’s a Romney-Ryan ticket.  The Republican Presidential hopeful officially named Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate on Saturday at a campaign stop in front of the U.S.S. Wisconsin in Norfolk, Virginia.

LISTEN to the formal introduction from Mitt Romney HERE:

President Obama’s reelection campaign responded to Mitt Romney naming Paul Ryan as his running mate by releasing the following statement:

“In naming Congressman Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney has chosen a leader of the House Republicans who shares his commitment to the flawed theory that new budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy, while placing greater burdens on the middle class and seniors, will somehow deliver a stronger economy. The architect of the radical Republican House budget, Ryan, like Romney, proposed an additional $250,000 tax cut for millionaires, and deep cuts in education from Head Start to college aid. His plan also would end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher system, shifting thousands of dollars in health care costs to seniors. As a member of Congress, Ryan rubber-stamped the reckless Bush economic policies that exploded our deficit and crashed our economy. Now the Romney-Ryan ticket would take us back by repeating the same, catastrophic mistakes.”

So who is Paul Ryan?  He’s a fitness nut, who moonlighted on Capitol Hill as a trainer at the Washington Sport & Health Club, and as a waiter at the Tortilla Coast restaurant before being elected to Congress.  At just 28 years old, he was the youngest member of his freshman class in the House of Representatives in 1999.  Prior to that, he worked as a marketing consultant for his family’s construction business – started by his great-grandfather in 1884 – in Wisconsin.

Ryan and his wife, Janna, have three children.  Among his hobbies, he “noddles” catfish, a form of catch done barehanded by shoving his fist down a fish’s throat, and listens to Rage Against the Machine and Led Zeppelin.