Ryan Says He Is As Qualified As Obama To Be Commander-In-Chief

In a sit-down interview with 10TV/ONN's Jim Heath, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said he is not concerned that limited foreign policy experience could keep him a heartbeat away from the presidency.

"Actually, I have more (experience) than Barack Obama did when he became president," Ryan said. "I've been in Congress a long time. I've voted to send men and women to war. I've attended those funerals for our wounded and our fallen soldiers. I've been to the war zones to hear their perspectives."

Ryan talked to Heath at Miami University, from which Ryan graduated in 1992, about a number of issues from the campaign trail.

Medicare has proven to be a politically divisive issue during major elections.

During their interview, Heath pointed out that Bob Dole (the Republican  presidential nominee in 1996) voted against the Medicare Act in 1965.  Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich once said that the agency that administered Medicare should be allowed to "wither on the vine." 

But Ryan strongly disagreed the GOP has a history of opposing the program.

"That's not true," Ryan said. "Medicare was a bipartisan bill. I don't know what Bob Dole did. Medicare and Social Security, those were passed with bipartisan votes.  Obamacare? (It was) jammed through in a party line vote. It's President Obama who raided $750 million from Medicare to pay for Obamacare."

Ryan also said he was not worried about how the Medicare debate will play out in states like Florida.

"I'm going to be in Florida on Saturday to talk about this. I look forward to this Medicare debate because once the truth is told, how President Obama raided the program hurts it for current seniors, and we protect it. I like our odds," Ryan said.

Ryan was also asked if he had discussed his opposition to Mitt Romney's health care plan in Massachusettes, Ryan said that the state's plan was different than Obama's.

"It's a state experimenting as one of our laboratories of democracy. But Mitt Romney and I are very clear, we share the same vision, which is to repeal Obamacare and replace it with patient centered health care," Ryan added.

The Obama campaign is airing an ad in Ohio that targets women voters by focusing on issues like contraception, abortion and the Supreme Court. 

Ryan said it's a campaign distraction by Obama to take the focus off the economy.

"Who is hurting the most in this economy are women," Ryan said. "The unemployment rate is high among women. The poverty rate among women is the highest we’ve ever measured it.  What we're offering is solutions to get people back to work."

He also spoke directly to Independent voters in Ohio.

"We're going to lead.  We're going to take responsibility. We're going to get this country back on the right track because if we have four more years of borrowing, spending, taxing, regulating, we're going to end up like Greece," Ryan stated.

Watch 10TV News and refresh 10TV.com for continuing Campaign 2012 coverage.