Vice President Biden’s pre-debate practice partner tried Wednesday to paint Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as an “extreme” and “uncompromising” figure before the first and only vice presidential debate on Thursday.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who has played the role of Ryan in preparation with Biden, appears in a new Obama campaign ad blasting the GOP vice presidential nominee over Medicare provisions included in the House Republican's budget plan.
The critique from Van Hollen, who serves as ranking member of the House Budget Committee, which Ryan chairs, is similar to one used by President Obama in the first presidential debate and is a likely preview of Biden's debate lines.
Ryan "will either have to stand by the extreme positions he and (Republican nominee Mitt Romney) hold, like turning Medicare into a voucher program that ends the program’s guarantee to seniors, or he will have to flat out deny their existence, as Gov. Romney did in last week’s debate, when he denied the plan to cut taxes for the wealthiest few at the expense of the middle class, a plan they have touted for months,” Van Hollen said in the ad.
The Obama campaign has attempted to deflect attention away from the president's lackluster performance in last week's debate against Romney by saying the Democrat was unprepared for the GOP nominee’s comments about the price tag of his tax plan. The Obama camp says Romney's proposal to cut all marginal rates by 20 percent is not possible without adding to the deficit or making deep program cuts.
Van Hollen credited Ryan as being “quick on his feet” and said he has a command of the facts of his own plan, but he accused Ryan of inaccuracies in his convention speech.
“As we saw from his convention speech, it is an open question as to whether Congressman Ryan will lay out anything that withstands the scrutiny of the fact checkers,” he said.
Biden, who is sometimes prone to verbal gaffes, is taking the debate seriously and shines when speaking directly to the American people, Van Hollen said.
“[It] is what he is great at and what he loves to do,” he said.
