Tampa, Fla. — As Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan prepares to accept the vice presidential nomination Wednesday night, he has a powerful North Carolina politician squarely in his corner.

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, who worked closely with Ryan on a health care reform initiative and co-sponsored and co-wrote numerous other bills with him, said Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney made the best possible choice for a running mate.

"I don't think there's any question that he's the best. I think that (this ticket) has the generational change that America, I think, is hungry for," Burr said. "I think it begins to set the course for where the true intellectual thought is going to come from from the Republican Party, and that's from Paul Ryan."

With Ryan, whose campaign messages have focused on policy over personality, there's no separating the personal from the political, Burr said.

"What you see in public is what you see in private. He's intense. He's knowledgeable. He's not shy at voicing his opinion, and he's in the room to reach a solution, not to attract a headline," he said.

Burr was one of the first U.S. senators to throw his support behind Romney early last fall. He said he believes Romney's business sense and Ryan's legislative expertise will foster a "chemistry of trust" that will serve them well as the campaign heats up over the next 10 weeks.

"I think Gov. Romney understands that Paul Ryan excites a segment of America that sometimes is not engaged in the election process and is going to be crucial to their victory in November," Burr said.