Paul Ryan Tells Iowa Rally Victory Is 'Within Our Grasp'

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa Oct. 21, 2012— -- Outside of a Bass Pro Shop on his first campaign swing in western Iowa, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan told voters victory "is within our grasp."

"We can do this," Ryan said, on a perfectly sunny day. "We can get this country back on the right track. Let's look back at this moment as when we did it. We need your help."

An NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released today has the national race a deadheat with President Obama and Mitt Romney both at 47 percent.

But the battle for the White House will come down to a series of key states, one of those states is Iowa. An NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll of Iowa voters last week has Obama with 51 percent to Romney's 43 percent.

The two candidates will have their final debate Monday in Boca Raton, Fla. The first debate believed to have been won by Romney significantly boosted his candidacy, while Obama was generally regarded as the winner of the second debate. The third debate begins at 9 p.m. ET.

Romney took some time off from debate prep in Delray Beach, Fla., to watch a flag football game between his staff and reporters.

Obama was secluded at Camp David for his debate prep.

Ryan told the over 1,000 Iowans gathered that due to their first-in-the-nation caucuses, they are "so used to it. You are used to being the eye of the storm. You are used to seeing this," noting only a "handful of states" get to determine the outcome on Nov. 6.

"You have a responsibility and an opportunity and an obligation to help us get this country back on the right track so that we look back on this moment as when we reclaimed our freedoms, when we got our jobs back, when we got our economy growing, when we restored the American promise of upward mobility, the American idea and when we made sure we did right by our children and our grandchildren like our parents did for us," Ryan said.

Standing in the parking lot of the hunting and outdoors store, he stressed his family's connection to the state, hunting, and another favorite topic of the GOP vice presidential candidate: football, comparing both activities to the values he discusses on the campaign trail.

"Big Ten country, that's where we are," Ryan said referring to the college football conference. "And in Big Ten country we take care of our kids, we take care of our neighbors, we are honest, we tackle our problems, and we want to look back at this moment as the time--as the time we got it right."

He said Bass Pro Shops are "where we take our kids to teach them values."

"It's where we look at the traditions we have in this country that made us so unique and so great," Ryan said.

In September on the campaign trail in Ohio , Ryan bought his 10-year-old daughter Liza her first hunting outfit.

Right before he took the stage here, news broke of a shooting at a spa in Brookfield, Wisc., a neighboring district to Ryan's. As information was still in the earliest of stages, a Ryan aide said the Wisconsin congressman was "made aware" of the situation.

Later in Sioux City, Ryan hit the president at a short rally, accusing him of becoming the "very kind of candidate he was then criticizing" four years ago.

"You see, the man we heard four years ago offering hope and change is the very kind of candidate he was then criticizing," Ryan said on the deck of a restaurant, Bev's on the River. "He has become what he criticized. He's not offering hope and change/. He's offering attack and blame and frustration."

Ryan's campaign later moved to Colorado for an evening event there.