WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republicans “have to be smart” in opposing President Obama, Wscionsin Rep. Paul Ryan said Saturday in a speech to the National Review Summit.

“If we play into his hands, we will betray the voters who supported us — and the country we mean to serve,” said Ryan, the House Budget Committee Chairman who was the Republican vice presidential candidate last year. “We can’t let that happen. We have to be smart. We have to show prudence.”

Speaking to some 700 conservatives gathered at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Ryan warned that Obama “will bait us. He’ll portray us as cruel and unyielding. … The way he tells it, it’s the president — and only the president — who’s trying to fix our bridges, to feed our children, to care for seniors, to clean our water. … But we can’t get rattled. We won’t play the villain in his morality plays. We have to stay united. We have to show that — if given the chance — we can govern. We have better ideas.”