For the second time in less than a year, Oakland University was in the national spotlight as Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan made a surprise visit to the O’rena Monday night.

As thousands of supporters and interested folk made their way into the usual home of the Golden Grizzlies, local native Kid Rock took the stage. The musician spoke of the importance of voting and urged those in attendance to do so. He also said while he is proud the U.S. elected their first African-American president, he felt President Barack Obama had failed.

“The main reason I’m here tonight is because I do believe you have to stand for something,” Kid Rock said. “It’s so important that everybody votes.”

Rock then introduced Ryan.

“We were just back there talking about hunting,” Ryan said of him and Kid Rock. “I’m not going to get into my tree stand until after the election, but I’m gonna have a great time in my tree stand taking my daughter for her first time hunting, because I know we will have just elected Mitt Romney as the next president of the United States.”

Wasting no time, Ryan touched on key areas of interest amongst voters including the economy, healthcare, unemployment and job creation.

The vice presidential hopeful said President Obama had come into office during a tough situation, but said that the problem is the president failed to handle the problems facing the country correctly.

“The Obama economic agenda failed not because it was stopped, but because it was passed,” Ryan said. “Let’s not forget that (Obama) came in with a one party rule, with the ability to do everything of his choosing and he did that. He spent a year and a half jailing through a one party rule of government taking over healthcare.”

Ryan also said Obama has yet to show how he plans to get the nation out of the debt crisis.

The congressman from Wisconsin put emphasis on the strength of the country’s military and what his running mate, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, plans to do about it.

“It seems like the only spending cuts he’s (Obama) eager to engage in are those that come in the expense of our military,” Ryan said. “With Mitt Romney, we will have peace through strength because we will have the strongest military in the world and no one will question our resolve.”

Ryan said the economy isn’t growing and the problem is that the Obama administration is spending, borrowing and taxing more without the adding new jobs.

The congress man added that more than 600,000 manufacturing jobs were lost since Obama took office.

“Mitt and I want to earn your support,” Ryan said. “We want to deserve it. We want to make sure when you go to the polls on Nov. 6 that you have the perfect choice to make.”

Ryan will be facing off with Vice President Joe Biden Thursday in a nationally-televised debate of their own, in which Ryan hopes to carry momentum into.

The Victory Rally is the second nationally-recognized Republican event to occur on campus in the last year, with the Republican Presidential Debates last November.

Ryan and the campaign said they chose Oakland University to host the rally due to it’s strategic location in a mostly conservative Oakland County and the success of the debates last year.

Ted Montgomery, media relations director for the university, said the Romney campaign came to them and asked to rent the O’rena. He also added that it is nice to see Oakland in the national spotlight and that the university is a place for public discussion.

Polls open on Nov. 6 for voting. Today is the last day to register.