JANESVILLE, Wis. — Even before he was old enough to ride a bike, Paul Ryan seemed destined for a career in politics.

Growing up in a well-to-do neighborhood in southern Wisconsin, a young Ryan displayed leadership skills that awed his preschool teacher.

“I remember kids playing on the floor with blocks,” recalled the former teacher, Susan Barton. “Paul would be saying — and this is unusual for a kid that age — he’d say, ‘Okay, now you man the catapult, now you go over here and do this.’ He kind of organized the other kids.”

Ryan made such an impression on Barton that she wrote on his report card: “I promise to vote for you when you run for president.”