Paul Ryan will repeat debate success

“You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt? The answer is yes, that’s what I’m telling you.”

Vice President Joe Biden’s statement epitomizes why the American people are rejecting four more years of an Obama presidency.

In a substantial debate devoid of personal attacks, President Barack Obama and Biden can’t keep up. Representative Paul Ryan, like Romney, will be quick on his feet, compassionate and professional. He will look poised and confident and show his strengths as a master of policy and data. Ryan will point to the failures of trickle-down government and the immorality of massive deficits, while laying out a strong philosophical vision of fiscal responsibility.

By all measures, the Obama campaign has handed Biden an impossible task. With polls showing Romney in the lead after a disastrous debate by Obama, Biden will do his best to frame Ryan as a heartless politician. He will continue to utilize tired “Mediscare” tactics, while ignoring the fact that the president cut $716 billion out of Medicare to fund Obamacare.

Even through it all, Republicans like me love Joe Biden. We agree with him when he said “the middle class has been buried in this country.” We are excited to see Ryan run circles around Biden the same way Romney did against Obama. We don’t need Al Gore telling us why Biden was ineffective; the president’s record speaks for itself.

Alex Yebri

Senior, political science

President, USC Trojans For Romney

Vice Chairman, USC College Republicans

Joe Biden will speak to American people

Anyone who has picked up a newspaper recently has seen a story predicting that Vice President Joe Biden will be drubbed in his primetime matchup with Representative Paul Ryan on Thursday.

After all, Ryan is the wonky, “budget-hawk” with a cult following among conservatives, and Biden is the gaffe-prone sidekick of a commander-in-chief presiding over a bad economy.

Most analysts won’t hesitate to pick Ryan to win this week’s debate. But if you dig down past the media spin and the echo chamber that has engulfed the national political scene, you’ll see that Biden is well positioned to win this debate and seal a second term for President Barack Obama.

Romney has experienced a surge in the polls in the wake of last week’s debate because he has fooled people into thinking he’s a moderate. He has lied about tax policy, misled the elderly about his Medicare plans, taken back his contemptuous comments about 47 percent of America and now he’s somehow tricked people into thinking he’s a centrist, bipartisan dealmaker.

Nothing poses a bigger risk to this carefully cultivated narrative more than the contrast between the ideological Ryan, who wants to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, and Biden, the former working-class Senator, who has never had an issue empathizing with people who have fallen on tough times. Biden might not always know the right words to say (or not to say), but on Thursday night he’ll be the only one on stage speaking a language that resonates with the American people.

Christian Patterson

Sophomore, political science and print and digital journalism

Current Events Director, USC Trojans for Obama