Tale Of The Tape: The VP And His Challenger

Vice President Biden and the Republican hoping to replace him, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, are scheduled to debate only once, Thursday in Danville, Ky. But they'll be fixtures on the campaign trail until the Nov. 6 election. Here's a side-by-side look at the two men.

The Candidates

Joe Biden

Paul Ryan

Who Is He?

Biden, whose own presidential aspirations sputtered in 1988 and again in 2008, brought to the Democratic ticket foreign policy chops and an ability to relate to working-class voters. In his 36 years representing Delaware in the U.S. Senate, he became known as more pragmatist than ideologue. He has also made a somewhat dubious name for himself because of his volubility and not infrequent verbal stumbles. But he has parlayed those potential liabilities into an effective, if occasionally unpredictable, campaign trail presence.

Ryan, the Wisconsin native picked by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney as his running mate, brings conservative star power to the ticket. One of the self-named "Young Guns" of the U.S. House, Ryan is best known for congressional budgets he has authored. His proposals would overhaul the tax code, increase defense spending, defund much of President Obama's health care legislation and remake Medicare into a voucherlike program. His prominence in the size-of-government debate has reassured conservatives skeptical of Romney's bona fides and also given Democrats an opportunity to portray the ticket as unfriendly to Americans of modest or little means.

 

Issues Abortion

Supports legal abortion under Roe v. Wade; supports partial-birth abortion ban; has voted to expand research to more embryonic stem cell lines.

Opposes abortion and embryonic stem cell research; supports prohibitions on federal funding for abortion and would ban federal funding of Planned Parenthood.

Civil Rights

Supports gay marriage, which he once opposed; supported repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell law, which barred openly gay Americans from serving in the military; supports prohibition on job discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Opposed repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell; opposes adoptions by same-sex couples; supports constitutional amendment to bar same-sex marriage; supports prohibition on job discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Health Care

Advocate for Obama's health care overhaul, which he once advised the president to delay given harsh economic conditions.

Opposes Obamacare; wrote budget plan that secures savings by converting Medicare from a guaranteed benefits to a voucher plan, and Medicaid to a state block grant program tied to inflation.

Taxes

Has, with President Obama, advocated raising taxes on wealthy Americans; touts tax cuts the administration says has lowered middle class tax bills by an average $3,600.

Has supported a two-level flat tax, reducing the corporate tax rate and eliminating the alternative minimum tax. Advocates closing unspecified loopholes to pay for tax reductions.

 

Biography Age

69; born Joseph Robinette Biden Jr, in Scranton, Pa.

42; born Paul Davis Ryan, in Janesville, Wis.

Family

Spouse, Jill Biden, college professor; children, Beau, Hunter and the late Naomi Biden (with late wife, Neilia Hunter), and Ashley (with Jill Biden).

Spouse, Janna Ryan, tax lawyer and stay-at-home mother; children, Elizabeth, Charles and Samuel.

Education

Law degree, Syracuse University, 1968; bachelor's, University of Delaware, 1965

Bachelor's degrees in political science and economics, Miami University of Ohio, 1992.

Religion

Roman Catholic

Roman Catholic

Wealth Note: Elected officials are now required to list their primary home mortgages on their disclosures, but don't have to list the value of their homes as an asset.

Biden's reported personal net worth, according to financial disclosures required of members of the executive branch, ranges from negative $1.2 million to positive $190,993. He has assets ranging from $233,000 to $776,000, but his liabilities include a mortgage of between $500,000 and $1 million, which includes his principal residence and a rental property, and several loans or lines of credit.

Ryan's personal worth ranges from $2 million to $7.7 million, largely as a result of an inheritance his wife recently received after her mother died. In June, Ryan amended his 2011 personal financial disclosure to reflect his wife's one-third interest in her late mother's trust. Her share in the blind trust is valued between $1 million and $5 million, according to the amendment submitted by Ryan. His only liability is a mortgage of between $250,000 and $500,000.

Health

Life-threatening brain aneurysm that required surgery in 1988, after which he suffered a pulmonary embolism. He was given last rites by a priest. A second aneurysm was repaired that year; he has reportedly had no recurrences.

Touts his fitness and low body fat as the result of a strenuous daily workout that combines strength and cardio training.

Personal Setback

His wife and 1-year-old daughter were killed and both sons injured in a 1972 car crash shortly after his first election to the U.S. Senate. They were Christmas tree shopping; Biden was not in the car. Democratic leaders persuaded him not to resign his seat to care for his family. He was sworn in at his sons' hospital bedside. The devastating loss, he wrote in his book, Promises to Keep, filled him with rage and made him question his faith. "All my life, I'd been taught about our benevolent God. ... Well, I didn't want to hear anything about a merciful God. ... I felt God had played a horrible trick on me, and I was angry."

When he was 16, Ryan, the youngest of four children, found his 55-year-old father dead in bed of a heart attack. He has pointed to the early death of his father, a lawyer, as key to the formation of his political and personal tenets. His father's Social Security survivor benefits helped put him through college.

Politics Experience

U.S. senator from Delaware, 1973-2009 (Judiciary Committee chairman, 1987-1995; Foreign Relations Committee chairman, 2007-2009); New Castle, Del., County Council, 1970-1972; attorney and public defender, Wilmington, Del., 1969-1972.

U.S. representative from Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District since 1999 (House Budget Committee chairman since 2011); legislative director for GOP Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, 1995-1997; speechwriter and volunteer for the conservative think tank Empower America; congressional aide to GOP Sen. Bob Kasten of Wisconsin, 1992.

Proudest Moments In Public Life

Lists his advocacy of U.S. military involvement in the Balkans in the 1990s, and the 1994 passage of the Violence Against Women Act, which he drafted.

Becoming chairman of the House Budget Committee in January 2011 over more senior members, and later House passage of his budget plan.

Political Setback

His run for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination was destroyed by allegations of plagiarism when operatives for opponent Michael Dukakis sent media an attack video showing that Biden appropriated without credit parts of a stump speech from British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock.

The failure of his ongoing efforts to privatize Social Security, starting in 2005 when he enlisted President George W. Bush to advocate for the change. Republicans lost big in midterm elections the following year.

Gaffes

How can they can justify raising taxes on the middle class that's been buried the last four years, how in Lord's name can they justify raising their taxes with these tax cuts?— Oct. 2, North Carolina campaign speech

This is a big *bleeping* deal. — to President Obama, at 2009 signing of health care legislation, caught on a hot microphone.

I mean, you got the first sorta mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man. — interview with New York Observer during 2007 Democratic primary season.

I don't have the -- it would take me too long to go through all of the math. — Sept. 30 on Fox News, when pressed to explain the Romney/Ryan budget plan.

Fun Facts

His sister, Valerie Biden Owens, who ran his first campaign for County Council, has been with him on every campaign since — including his first Senate race when his upset victory made him, at 29, the fifth-youngest person ever elected to the chamber.

Overcame a stutter as a child by memorizing poetry and practicing in front of a mirror.

Amtrak renamed its station in Wilmington, Del., the "Joseph R. Biden Jr. Railroad Station" to honor the man who during his 36 years in the Senate commuted by train almost daily from his Delaware home to work in Washington. Biden also helped secure stimulus funding to refurbish the station.

Classmates voted him both prom king and biggest "brown-noser" his senior year in high school.

In college, he had a job driving Oscar Mayer's promotional hot dog-shaped Wienermobile.

His wife's uncle is former senator and Oklahoma Gov. David Boren, a Democrat; her first cousin is the former governor's son, Rep. David Boren, also an Oklahoma Democrat.

He sleeps in his congressional office while in Washington.

He has professed a fondness for "noodling" — catching catfish with his bare hands.