With 4 Days to Go, Paul Ryan in Cedar Falls Urges Supporters to Reach Out to Undecided Voters

Four more days, not four more years, was the theme of the day as Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan addressed an enthusiastic crowd in Cedar Falls Friday.

"A handful of states will determine this," he said.

Ryan called on supporters to speak to their undecided friends and neighbors.

"We cannot afford to wait four more years for real change," he said. "Let’s make sure we only wait four more days."

The cheering, stomping audience responded by chanting, "Four more days! Four more days!"

Ryan asked the crowd to remember living through the Iowa floods as they watched the news of devastation from Superstorm Sandy. He urged Iowans to donate to the Red Cross.

"Let’s be there for them, because that's what Americans do," he said.

During his 15-minute speech, Ryan spoke about running mate Mitt Romney's experience reaching across the aisle while governor of Massachusetts and his experience in business.

"We have a jobs crisis," he said. "Wouldn’t it be nice to have an actual job creator in the White House?"

The event, which packed around 1,000 people into the University of Northern Iowa's West Gym, came in the waning days of the campaign, and was the only major Republican campaign stop in the Cedar Valley since the Caucus.

While President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton have all made stops in Cedar Falls or Waterloo in the last few months, the Romney-Ryan ticket has mostly eschewed the area in favor of the friendlier political territory of Central and Western Iowa.

However, Black Hawk County's registered Independents - over 35,000 of them, outnumbering both Democrats and Republicans - could be instrumental to winning Iowa's six vital electoral votes.

"There's a lot of enthusiasm in this crowd," said Mary Flynn, of Waterloo. "Let's hope it makes a difference."

Elizabeth Pence, of Cedar Falls, brought her two children, Sidney and Isaac Pense, both 6, to the speech.

"We are trying to teach them to be civic-minded," she said. "And we love Paul Ryan."

Five for Fighting singer John Ondrasik warmed up the crowd before the event, along with a full slate of Republican notables, including Iowa House candidate Matt Reisetter, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, Gov. Terry Branstad, Senator Chuck Grassley and Congressional candidate Ben Lange.

"As goes Eastern Iowa, so goes the nation," Lange said. "All the eyes in the entire United States of America are on us, on Eastern Iowa."