Photo Gallery A Spirited Sidekick Showdown
Vice President Joseph Biden (left) and Mitt Romney running mate Paul Ryan met in Danville, Kentucky, Thursday night for the only vice presidential debate of the campaign season. The debate was hosted by Martha Raddatz, center, a senior foreign policy correspondent for ABC News.
President Obama's listless performance in last Thursday's debate with Romney in Denver more or less assured that Biden would come out with both guns firing. Before the debate, Ryan's team said it was preparing for Biden to come out "like a cannonball." Biden did not disappoint. Here, Ryan and Biden share hands after 90 minutes of heated debate.
Things got particularly heated early in the debate, when America's relations with the Arab world were discussed. Ryan said that Obama's stance toward the Arab Spring, Iran, Syria and the Arab world in general, combined with planned defense cuts, "projects weakness" and lacks "credibility." In an exacerbated response, Biden said: "With all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey," adding that "not a single thing (Ryan) said is accurate."
Unlike in last week's presidential debate, the issue of Mitt Romney's comments about the "47 percent" of Americans who view themselves as "victims" and are fine with being dependent upon the government came up in this debate. Ryan suggested that Romney had misspoke and slipped in the zinger: "I think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don't come out of your mouth the right way." Biden sharply responded: "But I always say what I mean. And so does Romney."
Both of the vice-presidential candidates are Roman Catholic, but their stances on abortion differ. Biden said he agrees with the church's position on abortion, but is not willing "to impose it on equally devote Christians and Muslims and Jews." Ryan has previously said that he even opposes abortion in some cases of rape and incest. But, in the debate, he said that "the policy of the Romney administration will be to oppose abortion with the exceptions of rape, incest and (threats to) the life of the mother."
The debate also focused on the pace of America's economic recovery and its debt. Ryan admitted that the Obama administration had inherited "a tough situation." But he added that, under Obama, the country is "going in the wrong direction." Biden responded by pointing to the health of the automobile industry and recent job creation and reiterating how the Republican ticket is supposedly focused on helping the wealthy rather than the middle class.
Ryan after the debate with his wife, daughter and mother: In a sense, both of the candidates won. Ryan proved that he is more versatile, knowledgable and tough, while Biden put more fire into the Democratic ticket and got through 90 minutes without making one of his trademark verbal slipups.
Biden's wife, Jill, waves before the debate: On Tuesday, Oct. 16, Romney and Obama will meet in Hempstead, New York, for a debate using a town-meeting format. The final debate, on foreign policy, will be held Oct. 22 in Boca Raton, Florida.
