Vice-presidential candidates campaign in Wisconsin

Talk about it

Vice President Joe Biden told a UW-Eau Claire audience Thursday that he and President Obama have worked to defray college costs, while Republican Mitt Romney’s campaign hardly mentions education in a positive tone.

Biden spoke to an estimated 3,000 people late Thursday morning in his second campaign visit to Wisconsin since Labor Day weekend. The vice president said the Romney camp hardly mentions education “except in a negative context.”

Biden stressed the differences between the Obama and Romney proposals on education, college debt and entitlement programs that Republicans say are dwindling for future generations unless politicians take action soon.

Ryan in De Pere

Biden’s visit came one day after Republican vice-presidential hopeful Paul Ryan fired up supporters in De Pere. The Janesville congressman said President Obama’s defense spending cuts “breed weakness.” He said that’s something the U.S. cannot afford after Tuesday’s attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya that killed four Americans.

Later in the day, Ryan told an Ohio audience that in the wake of the tragedy, “We need to be reminded that the world needs American leadership.”

Ryan said the administration has sent “mixed signals” to the world, and to those who attacked the U.S. embassy in Egypt on Tuesday. He said, “It is never too early for the U.S. to condemn attacks on Americans, on our properties, and to defend our values. That’s what leadership is all about.”

The Obama campaign noted that Ryan voted for the Obama defense cuts as part of a bill last August to cut the federal deficit.

Joe Zepecki of the president’s Wisconsin campaign blamed the defense cuts on Ryan and other Republicans because of “their refusal to ask for one more dime from millionaires and billionaires.”

Obama said the U.S. would work with the Libyan government to bring the attackers at the consulate to justice. U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was among those killed.

Tags: news, wisconsin, politics