In the campaign's homestretch, Paul Ryan isn't exactly covering himself in glory.
The Republican vice presidential candidate made some eyebrow-raising remarks during a conference call with supporters, arguing President Obama’s policies threaten “Judeo -Christian” values.
Ryan told members of the Faith and Freedom Coalition on Sunday that Obama is leading the country down a “dangerous path,” one that “grows government, restricts freedom and liberty and compromises those values, those Judeo-Christian, Western civilized values that made us such a great and exceptional nation in the first place.”
Ralph Reed, a former leader of the Christian Coalition, the leader of the influential group, said “tens of thousands” of Evangelical Christians were listening to the call. Reed has pledged to turn out millions of Evangelicals to the polls.
Hardball host Chris Matthews sarcastically said Monday it was Team Romney’s latest attempt to paint the president as a “barbarian at the gates bringing down the western world.” He added Ryan seemed to have “gone off the crazy end.”
Nia-Malika Henderson, of the Washington Post , told Matthews that Ryan was trying to play off the notion that “somehow they’re in with God and Democrats aren’t.” She added that Ryan’s attack “does rally evangelicals but it also rallies progressives” angry about the remarks.
Dee Dee Myers, the former press secretary for Bill Clinton, said Ryan’s remarks demonstrated he was on the “wrong side of history” as the country gets more, and not less, diverse.