Conservatives Want Ryan to Campaign More Aggressively A crowd at Versailles Restaurant in Miami on Saturday sought a glimpse of Representative Paul D. Ryan, the Republican vice-presidential nominee. Representative Paul D. Ryan's selection as the Republican vice-presidential nominee is now yielding something Mitt Romney's campaign can do without: second-guessing about how Mr. Ryan is being put to use. Through the halls of Congress and well beyond, a whisper campaign is bursting into the open: Rather than burden him with the usual constraints on a ticket's No. 2 not to upstage or get ahead of the presidential nominee, let Ryan be Ryan and take a detailed, policy-heavy fight to President Obama and the Democrats. "They definitely need to use him more," said Rick Brumby, 52, a Republican voter who attended a rally for Mr. Ryan at the University of Central Florida in Orlando on Saturday, suggesting that Mr. Ryan is better than Mr. Romney at avoiding gaffes and making the case to middle-class voters for Republican policies. "I like Romney's message," Mr. Brumby said, "but I just think Ryan is the sharper of the two, and I think Ryan is more acclimated toward and relates better to the working class." Conservatives initially saw the selection of Mr. Ryan as a hopeful sign that Mr. Romney had fully embraced their small-government agenda and eagerness to turn the election into a head-on clash of ideologies. But now, with Mr. Romney encountering a host of problems and Republicans openly fretting about the outcome in November, Mr. Ryan's slow fade back into the secondary and sometimes afterthought role traditionally played by running mates has given conservatives a new outlet for frustration over the state of the race. "I was enthused when Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan because I thought it was a signal that this guy was getting serious, he was getting bold," Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Mr. Ryan's home state, told a Milwaukee radio show host on Friday. It's not necessarily even a frustration over the way Paul Ryan's been used but rather in the larger context: I just haven't seen that kind of passion I know that Paul has transferred over to our nominee, and I think it's a little bit of some pushback from some of the folks in the national campaign. Mr. Ryan still has high-profile moments of combativeness and takes on fights that Mr. Romney does not. On Friday, he appeared at the annual AARP convention and drew boos as he called for repeal of Mr. Obama's health care law and laid out the approach that he and Mr. Romney would take to address Medicare's financial troubles, which would encourage more private-sector competition in the government-run program. It was a classic example of what Chris Chocola, president of the conservative political action committee Club for Growth, admiringly called Mr. Ryan's " "You're damned right" answer" to critics. "If someone says you're going to change Medicare as we know it, you say, "You're damned right." Paul Ryan can give that answer," Mr. Chocola said, adding, "The Romney ticket would be well served to let Paul Ryan be Paul Ryan." There have been no visible signs of tension between the Ryan camp and Mr. Romney's high command, and Mr. Ryan has said he is happy with the way the campaign is going. "Look, I'm doing the things I want to do," Mr. Ryan said in Bartow, Fla. He added, "I'm excited about my role, and I feel very comfortable with it." Well aware of the failed Republican ticket in 2008, Mr. Romney's staff sought to foreclose any possibility of a running mate's going rogue, à la Sarah Palin, by making sure Romney loyalists ran the show. Mr. Ryan's team consists of two chiefs of staff from his Congressional office, who play a back-seat role to Dan Senor, one of Mr. Romney's closest advisers. Mr. Senor has traveled with Mr. Ryan since Day 1 and has overseen his convention speech, his debate preparation and his getting up to speed on foreign policy. There are regular strategy calls, usually daily, between Mr. Ryan and his team and the campaign's Boston headquarters. Mr. Ryan is not the kind of No. 2 whose ambition or temperament inclines him to buck the boss. He has played the traditional role of a vice-presidential nominee: attacking the president more bitingly than Mr. Romney, rallying the party base and doggedly campaigning in states like Ohio and Wisconsin so Mr. Romney can raise money or take time for debate preparation. Richard A. Oppel Jr. contributed reporting from Orlando, Fla., and Janesville, Wis.