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. 

 Sen. Durbin: Romney running away from Bain ‘like a scalded cat’ 
 
 By Keith Laing - 
 
 Durbin said Romney could clear questions about his tenure at Bain "this afternoon" by releasing more tax records. 
 
 Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) Sunday said GOP presidential Mitt Romney candidate is running away from his ties to private equity firm Bain Capital "like a scalded cat." 
 
 Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate and key ally of President Obama said Romney could clear up controversy surrounding his tenure at Bain "this afternoon" by releasing more tax information. 
 
 "We need to get down to the bottom of why…is Mitt Romney running away from his company, Bain Capital, like a scaled cat," Durbin said during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." 
 
 "Because there is evidence that under Bain Capital, they were exporting American jobs to low wage companies and he doesn't want to be associated with it," Durbin said, answering his own question. 
 
 Democrats have hammered Romney on his work at Bain, suggesting that he played a role managing companies owned by the firm after 1999 which laid off workers and over his personal offshore financial holdings. A report last week in Vanity Fair detailing Romney’s accounts and transactions in Switzerland, Bermuda, and the Cayman Islands sparked renewed Democratic calls for him to release more tax returns. 
 
 "Mitt Romney can clear the air this afternoon on this whole issue by making a more complete disclosure of economic information," Durbin said. 
 
 Romney has released returns from 2010 and an estimate of his 2011 taxes and says he will not disclose additional records. 
 
 Republican Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) defended Romney's business record, saying Obama is "fibbing, he is misrepresenting the facts about Bain Capital." 
 
 Kyl charged that the administration’s own poor economic record had sent American jobs overseas. 
 
 "I think the important point that people are missing here…is that the reason that businesses find that they have to find employees in other states and even sometimes in other countries to do their work is that this administration has made it so hard to do business in the United States and be competitive," Kyl said.
– Bill Kristol today joined the chorus of conservative voices calling for Mitt Romney to "take the hit" and release his tax records. "He should release the tax returns tomorrow. It's crazy. You gotta release six, eight, 10 years of back tax returns. Take the hit for a day or two." With that niggling detail out of the way, Kristol says Romney can then re-focus the debate with President Obama on the economy. More from the Sunday talk show dial, as per Politico: Paul Ryan on Obama 2012's attacks on Romney's time at Bain Capital: "He has a terrible jobs result, he has a terrible record to run on, so he has now gone to dividing the country in order to distract the country and try to win this election." Dick Durbin on Bain: "We need to get down to the bottom of why…is Mitt Romney running away from his company, Bain Capital, like a scalded cat." Rahm Emanuel on Romney 2012's demand for an apology over Bain: "What are you going to do when the Chinese leader says something? You're going to whine as your way? You cannot do that. As Mitt Romney said once to his own Republican colleagues: 'Stop whining.'" Durbin on Jesse Jackson Jr.: "I hope very very soon that Congressman Jackson can tell us what he's facing. I think the people of Illinois are going to embrace anything he's doing to put himself back in the good strong position to return to his family and to Congress."