Paul Ryan defends Afghanistan omission at GOP convention

(CBS News) Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan defended his and Mitt Romney's omission of the war in Afghanistan from their acceptance speeches at the Republican National Convention last week, saying Romney has been talking about Afghanistan "repeatedly" through out his campaign.

On "CBS This Morning," Ryan said Romney didn't need to mention the 11-year long war because he gave a speech earlier in the week at American Legion, and he said he mentioned veterans in his own convention speech.

"I talked about veterans and what they've done for our country," Ryan said.

When asked by "CTM" co-host Charlie Rose about the Romney-Ryan Afghanistan policy, Ryan said he agreed with President Obama's policy to withdraw troops in 2014, but he said they have "some differences." The key difference, he pointed out, is that they would conduct "an assessment" after taking office on the defense posture leading up to the withdrawal.

As for domestic policy, Ryan defended an inaccurate statement he made in his convention speech where he blamed the president for the closure of a General Motors plant in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin. The plant closed in 2008 before Mr. Obama took office.

"The point I was making about GM is that the president said he's lead an effort to retool the GM plant and get people back to work. That didn't happen," Ryan said. "The president made lots of different promises in lots of different communities when he ran for president in 2008 and those promises haven't materialized."

Charlie Rose also pressed Ryan on why he supported the auto bailout during his time in Congress. His running mate, Mitt Romney opposed the bailout and supported bankruptcy without government assistance. Ryan offered a defensive response saying he supported the bailout "as a means to prevent TARP from being using for the bailout."

"The real question is what are we doing to make manufacturing more competitive," Ryan continued. "We should be bouncing out of [the recession] creating jobs. We're not creating jobs at the pace we should be. That's why we're offering big solutions for the big problems of today."