In his first interview since his defeat in last Tuesday's presidential election, former Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan expressed his surprise at his ticket's resounding loss.
"We were surprised at the outcome," said Ryan, speaking to WISC-TV, a local CBS affiliate in his home state of Wisconsin. "We knew this was gonna be a close race. We thought we had a very good chance of winning it."
Ryan insisted he and Mitt Romney didn't lose on the financial issues they argued about with President Obama throughout the campaign, like tax rates, spending on social programs or Medicare.
"I don't think we lost it on those budget issues, especially on Medicare - we clearly didn't lose it on those issues," he said.
Instead, Ryan blames the loss on the Democrats' voter turnout programs and their ability to rally their base.
"The surprise was some of the turnout, some of the turnout especially in urban areas, which gave President Obama the big margin to win this race," said Ryan.
"When we watched Virginia and Ohio coming in, and those ones coming in as tight as they were, and looking like we were going to lose them, that's when it became clear we weren't going to win."
But the Romney-Ryan ticket also lost rural states like New Hampshire and Iowa that don't have large, Democratically-leaning urban areas.
And to some progressives, it sounds like Ryan is blaming urban voters--which some of them view as a dog whistle reference to minorities.
The Republicans carried the white male vote, but lost 55 percent of the women's vote, 71 percent of the Latino vote, 73 percent of the Asian-American vote, and 93 percent of the African-American vote, statistics that paint a bleak picture for the future of the Republican party in an electorate that is becoming ever more diverse.
As for Ryan's role in that future, he pushed aside any speculation about a run for president in 2016.
"Oh, 2016, let's not talk about that stuff. That's four years away. I think we're all tired of presidential politics at this time."
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