Even before he stepped into the election spotlight as Mitt Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, the young blue-eyed Republican Representative from Wisconsin, was gifted dreamboat status with “Hey Girl, It’s Paul Ryan,” the latest political Tumblr sensation based on the viral “Hey Girl” meme featuring Ryan Gosling.

The original idea was inspired last May by a detail from a New York Times profile of Ryan that mentions his penchant for fishing catfish with his bare hands. Three 20-something friends set a Tumblr account in action, pairing pictures of Ryan with good-natured pick-up lines playing off his budget plan and GOP policies. Although the girls stopped posting after Ryan appeared uncomfortable with their pet project, his new spot on the GOP ticket has set the blog rolling again with VP-related humor like, “Hey Girl, I may be vying for #2/But you’ll always be my #1.”

As we inch towards November and the campaigning intensifies, it will be fun to see if Ryan follows Hillary’s lead, and submits a “Hey Girl” of his own.

Photo credit: United States Congress/Wikipedia Commons