Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, will deliver the Republican Party's response to President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night, according to party sources.

The nationally televised address offers a major platform for rising stars to introduce themselves and help boost their party as they critique the president's agenda.

It hasn't always been an immediate boon for those picked to deliver the response, but key party stars have been in the recent lineup, and their national profiles have risen subsequently.

During the Bush administration, some of the Democratic responders included Kathleen Sebelius, Evan Bayh and Tim Kaine. All three are former governors who were vetted by President Obama's campaign in the summer of 2008 for the vice presidential nomination. Bayh was a two-term senator who is still talked about as a national candidate, Sebelius went on to run the Department of Health and Human Services, and Kaine runs the Democratic National Committee.

Republicans picked Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell last year and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal in 2009.

The Republican leadership teams for the House and Senate pick the response messenger jointly, and there's a reluctance to choose potential presidential contenders for the coming cycle.

In Ryan, they selected a young, telegenic foil to the charismatic president who shares the same traits. And by picking a member of the House, GOP leadership selected someone who will compete with the president more directly on policy given that Republicans are still in the minority in the Senate and do not control the agenda.

What's more, Ryan emerged as a leading intellectual and policy-oriented GOP challenger to Obama after the House Republican retreat nearly a year ago when the president spoke there.

And now that Ryan is running the Budget Committee, he'll have a critical perch from which to work both with and against the president on spending issues - a top Republican priority - over the next two years.