Obama and Romney both predicted strong performances by their No. 2s.

“I think Paul Ryan will do great,” Romney told supporters at a town-hall meeting Wednesday in Mount Vernon, Ohio.

He said the debates offer people a rare chance to see the candidates directly, unfiltered by misleading and negative ads.

The GOP nominee said he’d seen some of the anti-Romney TV ads running in Ohio that morning, and added: “It’s a good thing I don’t do that very often because my blood pressure would be very high.”

Obama, in a radio interview Wednesday with Tom Joyner, said he’d been “too polite” in his debate with Romney — a sure sign that Biden won’t be going easy on Ryan. And that Obama won’t make the same mistake in the next two presidential debates, on Tuesday in Hempstead, N.Y., and Oct. 22 in Boca Raton, Fla.

“We’ve got four weeks left in the election, and we’re going to take it to him,” Obama said.

Later, in an interview with ABC News, Obama minimized the importance of his poor first debate performance, saying: “Gov. Romney had a good night. I had a bad night. It’s not the first time I’ve had a bad night.”

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