Official site of Tribune News serving Tomball, Magnolia and Waller

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican candidate Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama are making the hard sell to working-class and women voters while raising the volume of their criticism to cast the other guy as an extremist.

Romney's team thrust welfare into the campaign with an ad claiming that Obama planned to dole out taxpayer dollars to anyone, even those not trying to find work. For his part, Obama was to appear Wednesday with Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University student who became a flashpoint for women's health and, by proxy, abortion rights. Obama's message: Romney would take away women's health insurance benefits won by Democrats.

Romney is set for a Wednesday morning rally in Des Moines before flying back to New Jersey to raise more money for his already sizable campaign accounts. Obama is heading westward to Colorado to make the case to voters, especially women, that he should be re-elected in November.

Romney charged that Obama was undoing welfare reforms President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1996 by offering waivers to states. His campaign sees Obama's decision as an opportunity to argue that the president is a liberal who wants to give the poor a free pass at the expense of the middle class.

White House spokesman Jay Carney blasted Romney's assertions as "categorically false and blatantly dishonest." The White House said Obama wanted to give states the flexibility they had been seeking to tailor the program to their needs.

Some conservatives fear the increased latitude could allow states to get around the work requirements, which were a key element of the welfare overhaul under Clinton. But the former president himself weighed in, saying in a statement that the assertion in Romney's ad was "not true" and the ad misleading.

The welfare issue as pushed by the Romney campaign appeared to be aimed at blue-collar whites in a weak economy and suggested that Obama might be gaining ground politically with his position on taxes.

The setting for the comments mattered, too. Romney was campaigning in Iowa, where six electoral votes are up for grabs. Strategists from both parties envision a close election in the state that, in some ways, launched both Romney and Obama.

Four years ago, Obama won Iowa's leadoff Democratic caucuses en route to his party's presidential nomination. He went on to carry Iowa in the general election against Republican Sen. John McCain.

Yet when Obama won the state four years ago, Democrats had a 105,000-voter registration advantage. Republicans now hold a 21,589 voter advantage and are more bullish about their chances.

Romney, too, won his party's Iowa caucuses — at least for a while. Election officials later reversed the call and gave Sen. Rick Santorum the upset. By then, Romney had momentum after another strong showing in New Hampshire.

Obama plans to spend three days in Iowa next week, a signal that his advisers see the Midwestern state as fertile soil for his political message, especially his support for wind energy. Wind turbines dot the Iowa horizon and employ thousands of voters. Romney often mocks Obama's support for so-called green energy projects, a position that puts him at odds with Republican leaders in the state.

Obama is launching a two-day, four-city swing through Colorado on Wednesday. His events are expected to focus on the economy, including his call for Congress to extend tax cuts for families making less than $250,000 a year while letting the cuts for higher-income earners expire.

A new Quinnipiac University poll shows Obama and Romney tied among voters in Colorado households earning between $30,000 and $50,000 per year — an important target. Obama leads among voters with lower incomes; Romney is favored by those making more.

Obama planned to emphasize women's health issues at his first event in Denver. The crowd at the Auraria Event Center was expected to be predominantly women. The president was to be introduced by Fluke, the Georgetown University student who gained notoriety after conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh called her a slut because she supports the Obama health care law's requirement that insurance companies cover contraception.

The president has been running television advertisements in Colorado highlighting his health care overhaul's benefits for women and warning that those benefits could be taken away if Romney wins. On Wednesday the campaign released a video in which actress Elizabeth Banks describes her personal experience with Planned Parenthood and criticizes Romney for promising to eliminate its federal funding.

Both Obama and Romney see women — particularly suburban women from their 30s to their 50s — as crucial to their victory in Colorado, where polls show the candidates in a tight contest for the state's nine electoral votes.

Obama has had the edge over female voters nationally and is focusing on a particularly promising subset: college-educated women. Fifty-five percent of college-educated women preferred Obama in a June Associated Press-GfK poll, while 40 percent preferred Romney.

Obama has been a frequent visitor to Colorado this summer, but not for purely political purposes. He made a quick trip to Colorado Springs in late June to view wildfire damage and meet with first responders battling the most devastating fires in the state's history. Two weeks later, he returned to meet with the grief-stricken families and survivors of the movie theater shooting in Aurora.

Both trips gave Obama an opportunity to assume the role of consoler in chief and show swing-state voters leadership in a crisis.

This week, Obama's focus will be solely on rounding up votes in the tightly contested Western battleground.

Both Colorado and Iowa, with huge swaths of independent-minded voters, hold significant political weight in November. In a tight election, their electoral votes could make the difference between a win or a loss. Obama won both in 2008.

Pace reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in Chicago and Kasie Hunt in Washington contributed to this report.

CINCINNATI (AP) — President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies aren't waiting for Republican Mitt Romney to reveal his vice presidential choice. They're already trying to scuff up those considered by political insiders to be most likely to join the GOP ticket.

The president's campaign started swinging at the potential Republican running mates this week while urging home-state Democrats to chime in about the shortcomings that — as emails to donors and supporters put it — "Americans need to know." The pre-emptive strikes are an effort to define a possible No. 2 in a negative light and reflect a sense that time is precious to sway opinion in a stubbornly close presidential race dashing quickly toward November.

Tim Pawlenty? The former Minnesota governor is a fee-raiser whose record "is painful for the middle-class families who lived under his leadership," the Obama campaign argues.

Rob Portman? The Ohio senator is "one of the architects of the top-down Bush budget" that the Obama team blames for "crashing our economy."

Marco Rubio? The rookie Florida senator has "led the way on almost every extreme position Mitt Romney has embraced," according to the missive that seeks examples of "the good, the bad and ugly" of Rubio.

Chris Christie? There's "no lack of material to work with" about the pugnacious New Jersey governor.

Those views are far from how Republicans regard the foursome. As many in the GOP see it, Pawlenty is extolled for his blue-collar appeal and budget restraints during eight years as governor; Portman is praised for a vast portfolio of experience and as someone who could help deliver a critical swing state; Rubio is a rising star who could help the GOP attract Hispanic voters; and Christie is willing to take on entrenched interests and big problems no matter whom he offends.

Romney's campaign criticized Obama for seeking the critiques. They are little more than "negative smear campaigns against the possible GOP vice presidential nominees," Ohio-based spokesman Chris Maloney said.

It's not just the Obama operation that's trying to tar the Republicans. Local Democratic officials in contested states aren't letting visits by the would-be vice presidents go unchecked. In conference calls, they try to draw attention to what they say are the Republicans' flaws, then quickly deliver biting assessments when one of them campaigns in a battleground state. Independent groups sympathetic to Obama are piling on as well.

American Bridge 21st Century, a Washington-based super PAC, has already dumped a combined 1,651 unflattering pages of so-called opposition research on Pawlenty, Portman and Rubio as well as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan. The five electronic briefing books, including two released Wednesday, rake over the Republicans' voting records, proposals, public statements and slipups. The rundowns are so detailed that a politician's taste for expensive wine is even noted in one of the books.

American Bridge President Rodell Mollineau said the group started months ago compiling the information — much of it's drawn from media reports, public records and speeches — and decided against waiting until the vice presidential pick becomes known to trickle out the juiciest bits.

"You don't want to start too soon, but you don't want to be in a situation where there's 80 days until the election and everything is being jammed in so much that things are being lost," Mollineau said.

The findings are likely to buttress criticism from top Democrats, feed into TV ads and show up as part of fall campaign mailings. The group also has video trackers in key areas eager to capture possible miscues or shifting positions.

The Obama campaign dispatches haven't gone unnoticed on the right.

Natalie Baur, a confidante of Portman, went so far as to issue a rebuttal to fellow supporters defending Portman as a problem-solver. The message called the Obama push for feedback on him a "desperate" move and a sign that "the president's friends are more interested in playing political games than working together to create jobs, fix the economy and pass a budget."

Romney has said little about whom he favors or when the choice will come, although it's expected well before the Aug. 27 start of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.

So far, Vice President Joe Biden has had the No. 2 space all to himself, which has given the Obama campaign a second high-level voice to tour the country, raise money and hammer their opposition. Obama's aides deny he has a preference, but admit they're watching closely for Romney's decision.

"Any way you cut it, whomever they pick, we'd much rather have Vice President Biden on our side, campaigning across the country, in the debates, out there standing up for the president, than any of the motley crew that Mitt Romney is choosing between," Obama campaign spokesman Jen Psaki said Wednesday.

Ann Romney, the candidate's wife who just returned from watching her horse compete at the Olympic Games in London, added to the suspense Thursday with an email telling backers "I can't wait" to help introduce "the other half of America's Comeback Team."

Bakst reported from St. Paul, Minn. Associated Press writers Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Fla., and Mark S. Smith in Washington contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney is charging that President Barack Obama has gone beyond the bounds of acceptable campaign speech with a TV ad linking him to a woman's death from cancer.

Without directly citing an ad run by the pro-Obama group Priorities USA Action, Romney says, quote, "I don't know what happened to a campaign of hope and change. I thought he was a new kind of politician."

Romney says on Bill Bennett's "Morning in America" radio show Thursday that Obama has been airing factually incorrect charges. Yet, he says the ads "just keep on running" and officials "just blast ahead."

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul labeled the ad linking Romney to a woman's death "despicable." But Priorities USA Action refused to pull the TV spot off the air.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — President Barack Obama blamed Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan for blocking a farm bill that could help voters in Iowa and elsewhere cope with a crippling drought, as both candidates campaigned in the important Midwestern battleground.

"If you happen to see Congressman Ryan, tell him how important this farm bill is to Iowa and our rural communities," Obama said in excerpts released ahead of a speech Monday in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Ryan, campaigning alone for the first time since getting the vice presidential nod, planned to meet voters Monday at the Iowa State Fair. Romney was in Florida for a bus tour.

Romney's campaign, seeking to ratchet up support in Iowa, played up Ryan's upbringing in Wisconsin, which has a significant agricultural industry. Spokesman Ryan Williams said "no one will work harder to defend farmers and ranchers than the Romney-Ryan ticket."

Obama carried Iowa in 2008, but polls show a close race in the battleground state less than three months from Election Day.

Ryan's events in Iowa could help determine whether conservative excitement for the Wisconsin congressman — and his austere budget plans — will overshadow Romney's message and Republican attacks on Obama's economic performance.

Romney briefly defended his new running mate's budget proposals for Medicare, telling Florida voters that the Republican ticket wants to "make sure that we preserve and protect Medicare."

"He's come up with ideas that are very different than the president's," Romney said of Ryan. "The president's idea, for example, for Medicare, was to cut it by $700 billion. That's not the right answer."

At the same time, a pro-Romney super PAC is spending more than $10 million on a new television advertisement attacking Obama's handling of the economy as the nation's unemployment rate lingers above 8 percent.

"Another month. Even more Americans jobless," says the narrator in the ad from the group, Restore Our Future, which is led by people with close ties to Romney.

The spot will air for more than a week across 11 presidential battleground states, including Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Democrats are banking on Ryan and his controversial budget proposals overshadowing Romney's message and Republican attacks on Obama's economic performance.

Since Romney formally named Ryan his running mate on Saturday, the Obama campaign has been attacking the Republican budget architect's plans to transform Medicare into a voucher system and re-shape the nation's tax system.

A top Obama political adviser, David Axelrod, said Monday that Romney's selection of Ryan is reminiscent of John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin four years ago. He told "CBS This Morning" he remembers the initial excitement surrounding Palin's selection, but says he doesn't believe the choice of Ryan "is going to be a plus for Mr. Romney."

Axelrod called Ryan "a genial fellow" who advocates harsh policy positions, particularly on Medicare.

Ryan figures to play prominently in Obama's message during his three-day bus tour across Iowa, which marks his longest visit to a single state during the 2012 campaign.

Obama's bus tour will begin in Council Bluffs, just across the Missouri River from Omaha, Neb., and head across the state before wrapping up in Davenport along the Mississippi River.

Obama will showcase the powers of incumbency as he tours a farm in Missouri Valley, Iowa, and discuss ways of addressing the devastating drought. White House officials said the president planned to direct his Agriculture Department to buy up to $170 million worth of meat and poultry to provide relief to farmers and ranchers.

The Defense Department, a large purchaser of beef, pork and lamb, was expected to look for ways to encourage its vendors to speed up purchases of meat.

Obama has urged Congress to pass a farm bill to provide a long-term solution for farmers. Democrats and Republicans are at odds over the program's farm subsidies and food stamps, with Ryan among the GOP lawmakers backing cuts in food stamp programs that are opposed by the president's party.

Ryan, a 42-year-old congressman, is best-known for his proposing to reshape Medicare, the long-standing entitlement, by setting up a voucher-like system to let future retirees shop for private health coverage or choose the traditional program — a plan that independent budget analysts say would probably mean higher out-of-pocket costs for seniors.

Looking to define the Republican ticket's views on Medicare, the Obama campaign released an online video Monday featuring seniors in Florida talking about how Ryan's proposed changes to the popular health care program could affect them.

"It doesn't make any sense to cut Medicare," says one woman. The video aims to portray the Romney-Ryan ticket as a threat to Medicare and Obama as its protector.

The commercial comes as Romney gently tries to distance himself from his running mate's budget plan, making clear that his ideas rule, not Ryan's.

"I have my budget plan," Romney said, "And that's the budget plan we're going to run on."

He walked a careful line as he campaigned with Ryan, a tea party favorite, by his side in North Carolina and Wisconsin, singling out his running mate's work "to make sure we can save Medicare." But the presidential candidate never said whether he embraced Ryan's austere plan himself.

The pair faced an estimated 10,000 supporters in Wisconsin as Ryan returned Sunday to his home state for the first time in his new role.

"Hi mom," Ryan said, voice crackling as he took the stage and looked out over a sprawling crowd.

An enthusiastic Romney seemed to feed off the energy.

"If you follow the campaign of Barack Obama, he's going to do everything in his power to make this the lowest, meanest, negative campaign in history. We're not going to let that happen. This is going to be a campaign about ideas, about the future of America," Romney said. "Mr. President, take your campaign out of the gutter. Let's talk about the real issues that America faces."

The Romney campaign, meanwhile, released a new ad accusing the Obama administration of "gutting welfare reform."

The new television advertisement released Monday accused the Obama White House of stripping the work requirement from the nation's welfare law. It's the same charge the Republican candidate levied in a separate ad last week.

Independent fact checkers have found the premise of the ad to be false.

Online: Obama video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4OACn0Kkbk

NORTH CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign is staying on the offensive in the increasingly heated debate over the future of Medicare, the health care program relied upon by millions of seniors.

"The president was talking about Medicare yesterday. I'm excited about this," Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, said Thursday. "This is a debate we want to have, this is a debate we need to have and this is a debate we're going to win."

The Wisconsin congressman's addition to the GOP ticket this past weekend drew immediate scrutiny to a budget proposal he drafted that proposes to transform Medicare into a voucher-like system for future retirees.

In turn, Romney and Ryan called attention to President Barack Obama's health care law, which is funded in part by future savings from Medicare, and accused him of "raiding" the program of billions of dollars.

"What he probably did not mention yesterday is that when he passed his signature health care achievement, Obamacare, he raided $716 billion from Medicare to pay for Obamacare," Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said. "This will lead to fewer services for seniors."

What Ryan doesn't mention is that his budget proposal includes the same savings, which are supposed to be realized through lower payments to hospitals and doctors, and by making the program more efficient.

Romney has said he would restore the Medicare cuts.

Obama says the Republicans' proposal "ends Medicare as we know it," arguing that changes he's made, including to help seniors pay less for drugs and reduce wasteful spending, will make the program stronger financially.

"I've strengthened Medicare," Obama declared Wednesday a two separate campaign appearances in Iowa.

The Medicare debate continues as Romney's campaign presses ahead with efforts to undermine Obama's personal likability, one of his greatest assets, by trying to portray the outwardly calm president as someone seething with animosity and a lust for power.

Ryan carried the theme in his only public appearance Thursday, his second consecutive day of campaigning in the politically important state of Ohio. He said Obama was running a campaign marked by "frustration" and "anger" because he's out of new ideas and has resorted to "fear and smear" to try to win a second term.

Romney had charged a day earlier that "division and attack and hatred" were fueling Obama's campaign.

To help make their case, Romney's campaign has been highlighting a recent remark by Vice President Joe Biden that prompted some critics to suggest he was using racial undertones to gain political advantage.

Responding to Republican criticism that the Obama administration had sought to regulate Wall Street too tightly, Biden told a Virginia campaign audience that included hundreds of black supporters that the GOP wanted to "unchain Wall Street." He added: "They're going to put y'all back in chains."

Obama defended Biden, telling People magazine Wednesday that the vice president's only meaning was that consumers won't be protected if Wall Street reforms are repealed.

"In no sense was he trying to connote something other than that," Obama said.

The president wrapped up a three-day bus tour through Iowa on Wednesday, devoting attention to the state that helped launch his bid for the White House in 2008. He was joined by first lady Michelle Obama for the first time in months.

Obama and Biden were spending Thursday at the White House. Romney was raising money in South Carolina.

Obama resumes campaigning Saturday with a pair of stops in New Hampshire.

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Nathaly Uribe has all the papers she needs to get a work permit — something the 17-year-old daughter of a construction worker only dreamed of growing up as an illegal immigrant in the United States.

The high school senior said she hopes a federal program beginning Wednesday that defers deportation for illegal immigrants will make it easier to get a decent job and help pay for college.

"This is my country. It's where my roots are," said Uribe, who moved from Chile when she was a toddler and lives in Glen Burnie, Md. "It feels great to know that the country that I call home is finally accepting me."

Thousands of young illegal immigrants lined up Wednesday hoping for the right to work legally in America without being deported. The Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals could expand the rights of more than 1 million young illegal immigrants by giving them work permits, though they would not obtain legal residency here or a path to citizenship.

At least 13,000 people stood in line in Chicago, clutching reams of paperwork, for a workshop led by immigrant rights advocates at the city's Navy Pier. Hundreds of potential applicants waited outside nonprofit offices in Los Angeles for help filing paperwork to open the door to the staples of success in America — a work permit, and then later a Social Security number and driver's license.

"It's something I have been waiting for since I was two years old," said Bupendra Ram, a 25-year-old communications graduate student in Fullerton, Calif., who still needs supporting documents from his Fiji Islands home before he can apply. "This offers us an opportunity to fulfill the dreams I've had since I was a child."

Less than three months before an expected tight presidential election, the new immigration program is mired in controversy. Republican critics accuse President Barack Obama of drafting the plan to boost his political standing with Latinos ahead of November's vote and say the program favors illegal immigrants over unemployed American citizens during dismal economic times.

In Arizona, which passed one of the nation's toughest anti-immigration laws, Gov. Jan Brewer signed an executive order Wednesday directing state agencies to deny driver's licenses and other public benefits to illegal immigrants who obtain work authorizations under the program. Brewer said the federal program doesn't give immigrants legal status and she's following the intent of the current state law denying public benefits to them.

To be eligible for the federal program, immigrants must prove they arrived in the United States before they turned 16, are 30 or younger, have been living in the country at least five years and are in school or graduated or served in the military. They cannot have been convicted of certain crimes or otherwise pose a safety threat.

Initial concerns that federal authorities might take a tough approach on applications or that a Republican presidential victory could unravel applicants' gains have largely been pushed aside by massive interest from thousands of young people eager to work.

In Los Angeles, one immigrant rights' group started hosting hourly information sessions over the last month to keep up with the frenzy. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles has handed out 12,000 information packets about the program and is encouraging all eligible immigrants to apply as long as they have stayed out of legal trouble, said Angelica Salas, the organization's director.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney does not support so-called Dream Act legislation for illegal immigrants who attend college — a key group that Obama aims to reach with this program. The former Massachusetts governor has also criticized the deferred action program but has not said it he would reverse it, pledging instead an unspecified "civil but resolute" long-term fix to illegal immigration.

So far, the measure has won favor for Obama along Latinos — many who view immigration as a litmus test when choosing a political candidate, said Manuel Pastor, director of the University of Southern California's Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration.

"What this has done is to signal that the president, who was unable to get comprehensive immigration reform, does at least care about the situation of these immigrants," Pastor said. "This is something that has been overwhelmingly popular in the immigrant population and in the Latino population in general."

Some Republican lawmakers have accused Obama of sidestepping Congress and creating a backdoor amnesty program.

"It's a betrayal of American young people," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican. "We're supposed to be representing the interests of the American people — not people who come here illegally from other countries."

In an internal document outlining the program's implementation, Department of Homeland Security officials estimated more than 1 million people would apply in the first year and about 890,000 would be eligible.

On Wednesday, immigrants lined up for help filing applications at workshops around the country. Others sought identity documents from consulates to be able to apply.

Jaqueline Cinto said she's still working on gathering the documents she needs, knowing it's her only shot at putting her master's degree in education to good use. But she's nervous that filing the papers might put her relatives at risk for deportation — even though Homeland Security officials have said they will generally not use applicants' information to track down other family.

"I am even more afraid that I might be denied," said Cinto, 26, who came to New York more than a decade ago from Mexico.

In central California, one group has been warning farmworkers and their children not to sign up for the program at all.

"Immigration agents could haul them off that same day," said Manuel Cunha, president of the Nisei Farmers League. "Even if they don't, if this policy is disbanded, now ICE has the addresses of all the families. Why would you want to squeal on your parents?"

The documents to prove identity could include passports, birth certificates, school transcripts, medical, financial and military records. Multiple sworn affidavits, signed under penalty of perjury, can also be used, Homeland Security officials said. Anyone found to have committed fraud will be referred to federal immigration agents, the department said.

Laura Lichter, a Denver attorney who heads the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said everyone takes a risk by applying.

"I would say that people are between a rock and a hard place. In most cases, people can take (the government) at their word that their intent is to administer this policy in a fair and appropriate manner but there are going to be people that are going to find themselves having problems," she said

A decision on each application could take several months, and immigrants have been warned not to leave the country while their application is pending. If they are allowed to stay in the United States and want to travel internationally, they will need to apply for permission to come back into the country, a request that would cost another $360.

The lines on Wednesday grew throughout the day; the crowd in Chicago was so large that workshop organizers told them to come back another day.

"Navy Pier is today's Ellis Island, and while they saw New York City, today they see Chicago," said Illinois congressman Luis Gutierrez. "But the most important thing is they see America."

Contributing to this report were Andres Gonzalez and Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington, Elliot Spagat in San Diego, Gosia Wozniacka in Fresno, Calif., Sitthixay Ditthavong and Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Paul Davenport in Phoenix.

DENVER (AP) — Paul Ryan likes exercise, budget charts and the Green Bay Packers. Joe Biden likes train rides, foreign policy and talking — a lot.

In some ways, these presidential ticket No. 2s could not be more different. They are separated in age by nearly three decades, were born to families in different regions of the country and have views on opposite ends of the political spectrum.

But in other ways, the 42-year-old Republican congressman and 69-year-old Democratic vice president are very much alike. Both were born to Catholic families in working-class neighborhoods and were young stars in their parties who became experts on the inner workings of Washington.

And perhaps above all, these men both do political things their respective No. 1s cannot.

Biden, with his back-slapping image, big smile and hardscrabble roots in Scranton, Pa., is seen as more effective than President Barack Obama at courting white working-class voters. Ryan, while less known outside his Janesville, Wis., hometown, is a favorite of the Republican Party's conservative base, a group that long has been skeptical of Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney's conservative credentials.

Over the next three months, Biden and Ryan will play key roles in the White House race, raising money, criticizing the opponent and helping lend credibility in complicated policy debates — Biden on foreign policy and Ryan on federal budgeting. They will also inevitably create headaches for their bosses, as Biden did this week when he told a Virginia crowd that included hundreds of black people that Romney's plans for Wall Street would put them "back in chains."

Mostly, their job: Sell the boss to Americans — and tear down the other guy.

Routinely, Biden says Obama has "a backbone like a ramrod" and says he considers himself Obama's older brother. He also unleashes scathing attacks against Romney and, now, Ryan, including his proposals to overhaul Medicare.

Ryan, just days into his new role, has said repeatedly of Romney that he's "the kind of man who you want to serve as your president. He's the kind of man who, when he gets involved, he fixes things." And he lambasts Obama, saying he's "spending our children into a diminished future."

When talking to voters, both often offer personal touches.

While visiting a firehouse in Hillsborough, N.C., to thank firemen for the work they do, Biden shared the story of his first wife's and daughter's deaths in a car accident. Then, at high school football practice in Danville, Va., he offered some of his father's favorite words: "When you get knocked down, get up!"

With a football in his hand, the silver-haired Biden told players that when he played high school football he weighed about 158 pounds but with pads he clocked in at 175. Asked if he was ready to suit up and play, the vice president declared, "I'm ready to go!"

It was a moment of connection for a man who has maintained his everyman appeal, despite having worked nearly 40 years in Washington. Elected to the Senate at 30, he commuted by train more than two hours most days to and from Delaware to see his family. An Amtrak station in Wilmington, Del., was named in his honor last year.

Biden's kids have long since grown up. Two of them are about the same age as Ryan. But he often refers to his grandchildren on the campaign trail, including one story that he uses to accuse Republicans of creating the country's economic mess: "As my youngest granddaughter, Natalie, says, 'Who do they think did that, Casper the ghost?'"

Ryan became a congressman at just 28 and is nearing the end of his seventh term. He's been sharing stories about camping, his exercise routine and demolition derby as he has crisscrossed six states — Virginia, Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada and Ohio — on Romney's behalf this week.

He chatted about cow milking during a brief tour of the Iowa State Fair on Monday. The next day, his young children — and love for the outdoors — figured prominently in a speech in Colorado, where he took his family camping last summer.

Ryan said he showed his kids — Liza, 10, and sons Charles, 8, and Sam, 7 — how to cook a meal on a campfire and make s'mores. Later, he and his wife, Janna, put the kids to bed in a tent.

"We stayed up late and we talked about our country," Ryan said. "There's nothing like the stars and the skies of the Colorado Rockies at night. We looked at our kids and we know they are our future. But today, we look at our kids and we know, without a shadow of a doubt, that we are mortgaging their future."

When he makes comments like these, Ryan exudes a certain cheery authenticity. He is a former personal trainer, a skier and hiker known for his devotion to the workout routine known as P90X. The Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, Ryan is someone who draws budget graphs on napkins. He defends complicated Medicare plans with a boyish charm that prompted New York Times liberal columnist Maureen Dowd to call him "the cutest package that cruelty ever came in."

"Ryan strikes me as a policy wonk who's not a nerd," said Steve Duprey, a member of the Republican National Committee from New Hampshire.

Where Ryan's forte is the budget, Biden is an expert on foreign policy, having served as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee. Neither Romney nor Ryan has significant foreign policy experience.

Biden has significant credibility in the foreign policy realm, despite a tendency to stray off message.

His use of profanity was betrayed when television cameras captured him mouthing a colorful congratulations to Obama after the passage of his health care law. And just this week, he told a Virginia crowd that Obama needed their help to win North Carolina and referred to the country being in the 20th century — when it's the 21st century.

Biden made a more significant misstep while criticizing Romney's plans to eliminate new Wall Street regulations. "Unchain Wall Street," Biden told a crowd that included hundreds of blacks. "They're going to put y'all back in chains." Romney seized on the comments as proof Obama's campaign is driven by "division and attack and hatred."

Former Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., who introduced Biden at a rally this week, said the vice presidential campaign was a study in contrasts. Biden may be a generation older than Ryan, he said, but the vice president "hasn't missed a step."

"He may not work out as aggressively as Paul Ryan, but both of them are plenty fit," Perriello said.

Introducing Ryan this week, former Colorado Rep. Bob Beauprez said that there's one important thing to remember about Ryan: "He ain't Joe Biden."

Daly reported from Blacksburg, Va.