Vice President | featured news

Paul Ryan has dutifully set aside some key positions to support Mitt Romney's. It's something most vice presidential candidates have to do, but still opens him up to attacks as a flip-flopper.

Both parties’ vice presidential hopefuls earn lukewarm reviews from Americans, marking a lackluster introduction for Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and a major drop-off in popularity for Vice President Biden as the Republican and Democratic conventions near, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

His bet is that the era of triangulation is over: that Republicans can win elections without having to compromise. Or, perhaps, in an era when so few voters are truly undecided, he thinks a robust turnout from the Republican base could be enough to get him the 270 electoral votes needed to win.

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.

Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday that a Republican-led effort to loosen new regulations on Wall Street would put voters "back in chains."

It happens every four years in the dog days of summer: The presidential candidate - both of them, in some years - picks a running mate... in modern times, VP candidates rarely have helped the candidate lock it up in the home stretch of the campaign. And frequently they've been a drag.

Republican Paul Ryan's blueprint for Medicare could prove as polarizing in the campaign as President Barack Obama's health care overhaul has been. Even Mitt Romney may not want to go there....

Americans don't believe GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney hit a home run with his choice of Paul Ryan as a running mate, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, with more of the public giving him lower marks than high ones.

A senior political adviser to President Barack Obama is likening Mitt Romney's selection of Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate to John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin. David Axelrod tells "CBS This Morning" he recalls "that kind of excitement four years ago" when McCain presented Palin to the country as his choice for vice president. Axelrod says in Monday's interview he thinks the selection of Ryan, who is popular with tea party figures - as Palin was - is "not going to be a plus for Mr. Romney."

Paul Ryan’s path to Saturday’s surprise announcement that he would be Mitt Romney’s running mate began with a walk in the woods. But these were not just any woods. No, these were the woods where the Wisconsin congressman grew up. To escape his Janesville home undetected on Friday, Ryan snuck out his back door, walked through the woods behind his house and past the old tree fort he built as a boy and the driveway of his childhood home.