Romney, Obama advisers: Ryan choice was bold

Top advisers to the Romney and Obama campaign at least agreed on this point on Sunday: Romney’s choice of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as his running mate was a bold choice. 

Eric Fehrnstrom, a top aide to Romney, said that the Ryan choice showed that the GOP ticket had the “mantle of change,” and was the campaign more interested in having a serious discussion about big-ticket fiscal and economic issues. 

“We’re making a bet that Americans are more interested in a campaign that’s waged on real ideas – including entitlement reform – and that a substantive campaign conducted on the high ground is going to trump the kind of petty, negative politics that we’re hearing from Barack Obama,” Fehrnstrom said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“They’re really running a campaign without a conscience.”

But Stephanie Cutter, a senior campaign aide for President Obama, shot back that trying to point out what Ryan’s budget means for Medicare and Medicaid was hardly mudslinging. 

Ryan’s budget, Cutter said, was “big, bold and courageous. But I don’t think that’s the prescription the American people are looking for.”

“We’d love to have a substantive debate,” Cutter added. “As of yesterday, Mitt Romney put some substance on the table.”

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