Paul Ryan rallied the Republican convention audience Wednesday night as he formally accepted his party's nomination for vice president and made an urgent plea for the country to get to work turning around its economy and finances.

"We don't have much time," Ryan said, but claimed: "We can do this."

Teeing up the stage for Mitt Romney's nomination speech Thursday night, Ryan repeatedly accused Democrats of falling down on the job. The acerbic speech accused the president of leaving his legions of voters with little more than a record of squandered opportunities and broken promises as they stare at "fading Obama posters" and look for work.

“It all started off with stirring speeches, Greek columns, the thrill of something new,” Ryan said. “Now all that’s left is a presidency adrift, surviving on slogans that already seem tired, grasping at a moment that has already passed, like a ship trying to sail on yesterday’s wind.”

From start to finish, the speech was an unceasing assault on Obama’s record. By the end, he drew thunderous cheers and applause from the convention crowd. And as he has in the past, Ryan tried to draw a sharp contrast throughout.

Obama’s term, he said, has been “a dull, adventureless journey from one entitlement to the next, a government-planned life, a country where everything is free but us.”

Ryan pledged a new direction: "We will not duck the tough issues, we will lead."

He vowed to rein in the size of government, and called on the party to take the journey with them.

“Before the math and the momentum overwhelm us all, we are going to solve this nation’s economic problems,” Ryan said. “And I’m going to level with you. We don’t have that much time. But if we are serious, and smart, and we lead, we can do this.”

Of the Democrats, he said, “Their moment came and went.”

Ryan catalogued a litany of grievances against the president, from the stimulus and accompanying funding for companies like Solyndra – “with their gold-plated connections...and make-believe markets” – to the health care overhaul.

His inner numbers-guy emerged as he tried to explain the disconnect between the economic crisis when Obama took office and Obama’s actions in those first couple years.

“Here we were, faced with a massive job crisis – so deep that if everyone out of work stood in single file, that unemployment line would stretch the length of the entire American continent,” Ryan said. “You would think that any president, whatever his party, would make job creation, and nothing else, his first order of economic business.”

He went on: “Instead, we got a long, divisive, all-or-nothing attempt to put the federal government in charge of health care.”

Ryan also renewed the ticket’s pledge to repeal “ObamaCare” and continued to claim that he and Romney invite a debate about Medicare – which Democrats have tried to use against Ryan because of his own controversial plan.

But Ryan repeated the argument that the federal health care overhaul is the real danger for Medicare seniors because of the cuts it makes.

“The greatest threat to Medicare is Obamacare, and we’re going to stop it,” he said. “So our opponents can consider themselves on notice. In this election, on this issue, the usual posturing on the left isn’t going to work.”

Ryan brought the crowd to its feet when he took the stage and when he left it.

"After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround," Ryan said at the top, "and the man for the job is Governor Mitt Romney."

Ryan’s speech sets the stage for Mitt Romney’s nomination acceptance speech Thursday, which will close out the party’s convention and be the GOP’s last word before Democrats convene in Charlotte, N.C., for their nomination gala.

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Editor's Note: Truly one of the best political speeches in decades...and dare we say, a speech of real substance; something lacking in the speeches of Baack Obama's 2008.


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