TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Around the 2012 Republican National Convention and its host city with journalists from The Associated Press bringing the flavor and details to you:
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RYAN DELIGHTS
Republicans danced on their convention floor in delight at the conclusion of Paul Ryan's speech. As the vice presidential candidate neared the end of his speech, his voice rising, many in the crowd burst into a placard-waving, dancing-in-the-aisles burst of exuberance.
Even a few beach balls appeared, bopped around by the crowd, as Ryan and his family waved on stage. The Wisconsin congressman is a favorite among the party faithful and especially conservatives.
— Sally Buzbee
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A PITCH TO YOUNG VOTERS
Much has been said about President Barack Obama's popularity among young people in his 2008 race for the presidency — and the greater apathy many young voters are thought to feel this time around.
Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan took a swipe at Obama on just that issue Wednesday, telling the convention crowd that "college graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life."
Obama has been campaigning hard the last few weeks on college campuses, hoping that once again the youth vote can give him a boost.
— Sally Buzbee
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2 CHURCHES, 1 CREED
Paul Ryan touched on his Catholic faith and Mitt Romney's Mormon faith in accepting the Republican nomination for vice president.
"Mitt and I also go to different churches. But in any church, the best kind of preaching is done by example. And I've been watching that example," Ryan said. "The man who will accept your nomination is prayerful and faithful and honorable. Not only a defender of marriage, he offers an example of marriage at its best. Not only a fine businessman, he's a fine man, worthy of leading this optimistic and good-hearted country.
"Our different faiths come together in the same moral creed," Ryan continued. "We believe that in every life there is goodness; for every person, there is hope. Each one of us was made for a reason, bearing the image and likeness of the Lord of Life."
— Stephen Ohlemacher — Twitter http://twitter.com/stephenatap
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RYAN ON STIMULUS
In a speech assailing Barack Obama, vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan called the stimulus spending "a case of political patronage, corporate welfare and cronyism" at its worst.
But the Wisconsin lawmaker himself asked for stimulus funds in his district shortly after Congress approved the plan. Those pleas included letters to Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis seeking stimulus grant money for two Wisconsin energy conservation companies. One firm received $20.3 million, according to federal records.
— Jack Gillum
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GOP DIVERSITY
Condoleezza Rice got a huge roar of approval from fellow Republicans when she recounted her life story, the story of a little girl who "grows up in Jim Crow Birmingham — the most segregated big city in America."
"Her parents can't take her to a movie theater or a restaurant," remembered the former secretary of state, who is black. "But they make her believe that even though she can't have a hamburger at the Woolworth's lunch counter, she can be president of the United States. And she becomes the secretary of state."
Just moments later, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez spoke in startlingly similar terms about her own childhood, remembering that: "Growing up, I never imagined a girl from a border town could one day become a governor. But this is America." And then switching to Spanish she added: "Y, en America todo es posible."
Republicans are increasingly worried about their ability to attract minority voters and they have highlighted a series of speakers from diverse backgrounds.
Both Rice and Martinez were mentioned at various times as possible vice presidential picks, but both insisted they were not interested.
— Sally Buzbee
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RYAN GOES ON ATTACK
Paul Ryan is giving voters a vivid image of the nation's unemployment crisis.
If everyone now out of work stood in single file, he says, "that unemployment line would stretch the length of the entire American continent."
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