NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: Republican US presidential candidate Mitt Romney has picked Congressman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate, the Romney campaign confirmed yesterday.
“Mitt's choice for VP is Paul Ryan. Spread the word about America's comeback team,” a Romney campaign mobile phone application said, confirming widespread reports he had selected the 42-year-old Wisconsin lawmaker who chairs the US House of Representatives Budget Committee.
Romney was expected to introduce Ryan at the retired battleship USS Wisconsin — coincidentally named for Ryan's home state — in Norfolk, Virginia, at about 9 a.m. (1300 GMT) Saturday.
The announcement will mark the end a months-long search by Romney for a running mate to join him in facing Democratic President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in the Nov. 6 election.
The choice of Ryan will bring the debate over how to reduce government spending and debt to the forefront of the race for the White House.
Conservative leaders, increasingly anxious over the state of Romney's campaign, had urged him to pass over reliable — but not particularly inspiring - figures such as Ohio Senator Rob Portman and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, and instead go for Ryan.
The Wisconsin congressman is a favorite of the conservative Tea Party, an anti-tax, limited-government movement that helped Republicans take over the US House of Representatives in 2010.
But Ryan's selection immediately draws attention to a budget plan he proposed as House budget chairman that would include controversial cuts in government health programs for the elderly and poor.
Obama offers tribute to Clinton’s Muslim aide
US President Barack Obama offered a warm personal tribute to Hillary Clinton’s close aide Huma Abedin. Obama used the occasion of a dinner celebrating the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to pour praise on his “good friend” Abedin, a Muslim American, in a highly public and strong statement of presidential support.
He said Abedin, who has been at Clinton’s side in the White House, the Senate, her 2008 Democratic campaign against Obama and in her globe-trotting travels at the State Department, had worked tirelessly to represent the United States.
Clinton, now Obama’s top diplomat, has relied on Abedin’s expertise and “so have I,” the president added.
“The American people owe her a debt of gratitude — because Huma is an American patriot, and an example of what we need in this country — more public servants with her sense of decency, her grace and her generosity of spirit. “So, on behalf of all Americans, we thank you so much,” Obama told Abedin, at an iftar dinner marking the end of Ramadan’s daily fast, in the State Dining Room of the White House.
Abedin has been the target of a small group of Republican lawmakers, including former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, who have alleged she is part of a conspiracy to influence US foreign policy.
But Republican Senator John McCain spoke strongly in her defense, saying she was a devoted public servant full of “decency, warmth and good humor.”
Abedin was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1976 but moved with her family to Saudi Arabia when she was two. Her father was born in India under British rule and her mother is Pakistani.
“Put simply, Huma represents what is best about America: the daughter of immigrants, who has risen to the highest levels of our government on the basis of her substantial personal merit,” McCain said.
Members of Congress, including Minnesota Congresswoman Bachmann, wrote a letter to the deputy inspector general of the State Department alleging the conspiracy and demanding a probe.
Abedin came under the spotlight last year when her husband, New York congressman Anthony Weiner, resigned after sending lewd online messages and photographs on his cell phone and then lying about it.
