Paul Ryan Visits Michigan as Poll Shows Gap Closing

Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan made several campaign appearances in Michigan on Monday. According to reports by the Detroit Free Press and other media outlets, the candidate stopped at a charter school in Detroit and attended a fundraiser in Pontiac before heading to Oakland University for his last stop of the day.

Ryan's appearances in Michigan occurred on the same day that an EPIC-MRA poll released by the Detroit Free Press showed that the gap between the Romney/Ryan ticket and the Obama/Biden ticket in the state has shrunk to just three percentage points. September's EPIC-MRA poll had shown a gap between the two tickets of more than 10 percentage points.

Here is some of the key information regarding Monday's poll and Ryan's appearances in Michigan.

* Ryan's appearance at the Cornerstone charter school in Detroit was his first stop of the day. MLive and other media outlets reported that while there, he watched a group of students perform a skit in which they re-enacted a 1787 debate that occurred in Philadelphia regarding the creation of the U.S. Constitution.

* The candidate praised the school and its students after the completion of the program, telling them that "What you are doing is you are learning and showing those principles that made us great," as quoted by MLive.

* The Detroit Free Press reported that the fundraiser in Pontiac later that day was attended by some 290 supporters, each of whom gave a minimum of at least $1,000 and some who gave as much as $50,000 per ticket.

* The state of U.S. manufacturing and the rise of industry in China were two of the major topics that Ryan discussed during his appearance at Oakland University Monday night. In front of a crowd of thousands, he maintained that the U.S. needs to reclaim its spot as the number one manufacturing entity in the world, something that he asserted his presidential running mate Mitt Romney wanted as well.

* The Detroit News reported that he also sought during his appearance at the university to reassure the crowd of his and Romney's support for the U.S. auto industry as a whole. Although he maintained that his vote in favor of the auto industry bailouts in 2008 didn't end up helping Wisconsin or the rest of the Midwest, he also said that he and Romney "know a very healthy auto industry is healthy for the economy. We want a strong auto sector."

* Monday's EPIC-MRA poll showed President Barack Obama with a lead over Romney of 48 percent to Romney's 45 percent. A month ago, Obama had a lead in that same poll of 47 percent to Romney's 37 percent. Monday's poll places the gap between the two men back within the poll's 4 percent margin of error, meaning that they are once again tied statistically.

Vanessa Evans is a musician and freelance writer based in Michigan, with a lifelong interest in politics and public issues.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/paul-ryan-visits-michigan-poll-shows-gap-closing-155200579.html

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