Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan has formally accepted his party’s nomination, at its National Convention in Tampa, Fla. He spoke about the economy, health care and set the stage for Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney to speak tonight.

Missouri’s Congressional Delegation responds to comments from Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan at the 2012 Republican National Convention.

The speech energizedĀ convention attendees, including Missouri’s delegation, and there are ties to Missouri to be found in his comments.

Ryan focused much of the speech on the Affordable Care Act. Conservative Missourians turned out in big numbers in 2010 to vote for Proposition C, meant to disarm the Affordable Care Act in the state.

Lafayette County Republican Kay Hoflander says that could be the key issue in this campaign for conservative Missourians.

“He spent a lot of time on Obamacare, and that was really clear,” she says. “I thought his message was straightforward, very easy to understand, very clear … Obamacare is what is destroying Medicare, not the Paul Ryan Plan.”

Hoflander says Medicare is an issue of particular importance to her.

“I’m 65 and I’m on Medicare myself,” Hoflander says. “If people could understand what he said, which was, ‘we’re not going to bleed it to death like Obama and the Democrats want to do.’ They just want to bleed it to death. They have no plan to save it for my children, my grandchildren, but (Ryan) does.”

Hoflander says the speech sent the right messages.

“Exactly what Republicans would like to say to independents, or to Democrats, or to people that are undecided or people that misunderstand what his Medicare program is all about,” she says. “He answered it all tonight.”

Some ad campaigns and messages circulating on the internet try to tie Ryan to Missouri Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin, who is under fire including from fellow Republicans for comments made last week about abortion in cases of rape.

See our earlier stories on Todd Akin

Hoflander says it’s not clear how the Akin controversy might play out. “The national polls are not good for (Akin). I think he has some internal polls that he’s saying are good, but the national polls don’t look good. There’s some time, though, so it’s possible, but we just have to wait and see. I know that Democrats have tried to tie Romney, Akin and Ryan all together, but I don’t think that’s going anywhere … I don’t think it’s sticking.”

Romney will address the RNC tonight and formally accept the party’s nomination for President.

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