Biden confident American people will reject Ryan-Romney vision

DANVILLE, Va. -- Vice President Joe Biden said the American people would reject Paul Ryan’s vision for the nation.

In remarks to about 800 supporters in this southwest Virginia city Biden, escalated the Democratic ticket’s push to tie Republican nominee Mitt Romney to unpopular House Republicans, to the point of saying Romney would not be the one calling the shots if elected.

“Before, Gov. Romney [had] a tendency to either be vague or change his positions a lot,” Biden said. But Ryan “has now given definition to Romney’s vague commitments.”

“Congressman Ryan and the Congressional Republicans have already done what Romney is promising he’ll do for the nation. So this is one of those rare cases, for real, it’s almost like running against an incumbent,” Biden said.

Biden, sounding confident in a Democratic victory in November, said the evidence was in public polling on the Ryan budget blueprint, and the results of special congressional elections since 2010. Democrats did pick up seats in some Republican-leaning districts, though Republicans held their ground in others.

“It’s my view that the overwhelming majority of Americans are going to say that’s not the place, that’s not the path I want to go. I believe they will reject Gov. Romney and Congressman Ryan for attempting to impose that view and that vision on the American people,” Biden said.

Biden went on over the course of a more than half-hour speech to explain what Ryan’s budget would mean, and contrasting that with President Obama’s record. In an introduction of the vice president, former Virginia Rep. Tom Perriello, who served just a single term in Congress before losing in the 2010 Republican wave, made a similar case focused against Ryan, less than Romney.

He said Ryan “is absolutely one of the leaders of this Congress” -- one that he said had a 9% approval rating -- would cut benefits to seniors and veterans to pay for a tax cut “so big it makes President Bush blush,” and that obstructed the president’s jobs plans.

“Mitt Romney is the only person in America who looked at the way this Congress is behaving and said, I want the brains behind that operation,” Perriello said.

Biden is in the midst of a three-day swing that began in North Carolina on Monday and continues through Southwestern Virginia through Wednesday.

michael.memoli@latimes.com

Twitter: @mikememoli