Rep. Ryan: Obama is "dividing," "distracting" the country

(CBS News) Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., said President Obama's attacks on Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital is not important to voters, and that the president is ignoring issues Americans really care about.

"I'm sitting here in Janesville, Wisconsin; people are not worried about the details as to when Mitt Romney left Bain Capital to save the Olympics or the details about his assets, which are managed by a blind trust for Pete's sake," Ryan told Bob Schieffer. "They're worried about their jobs and their family's future.

"Barack Obama, he doesn't want to talk about that," the top Republican on the House Budget committee added. "He has a terrible jobs result, he has a terrible record to run on, so since he cannot run on his record he has now gone to dividing the country in order to distract the country and try to win this election."

Ryan said the president's campaign is a sharp contrast to his 2008 campaign. "This is not the candidate of hope and change. This is a candidate who is hoping to change the subject by attacking his opponent with attacks that have already been labeled by independent fact checkers as deceitful and untrue," he said.

After a question by Schieffer about some Republicans (including fellow Wisconsinite, Governor Scott Walker) who said repeatedly that Romney has to be more bold about his plans and to "never fight a battle on your heels," Ryan took a different tact on Sunday. He defended Romney, saying he is being specific about his policy proposals, and that the narrative is "false."

"This is why I endorsed Mitt Romney in the primary here in Wisconsin, because he was more specific than anybody running for president about specifically what he would do to prevent a debt crisis, to create jobs, to reform the tax code, to reform these entitlement programs from bankruptcy," the Congressman said. "Do you want the path the president has put us on - a path of debt, doubt and decline, a welfare state with a debt crisis? Or the Mitt Romney path, which has been very clear about prosperity, the American idea, turning the economy around and getting us back to growth again?"

Ryan was also asked about the vice-presidential race. He gave no indication if he is a prospective candidate, but said former Secretary of State under the George W. Bush administration, Condoleezza Rice, is "absolutely worth of consideration."

The Drudge Report said on Thursday that Rice was the leading contender.

"I love Condi. I think she's fantastic," Ryan said.