VP Debate
10:48 p.m.: Ryan acquitted himself fine, but he wasn’t in attack mode for enough of the debate. When you’re the challenger, the best way to make an impression is to eviscerate the record of the incumbent administration. Ryan did that in spurts, but he allowed Biden to dictate the terms of the discussion, which were to focus on Romney’s lack of specific answers to a slew of problems over which Republicans have gone after Obama. Even still, Ryan is a smart man, and he acquitted himself exponentially better than the last Republican veep nominee to debate Biden, Sarah Palin, four years ago. Ryan is Washington’s foremost conservative policy wonk, and he did not appear intellectually overmatched by the seasoned Biden.
But the winner tonight was just as clear as it was in the first debate. Biden turned in precisely the effort Democrats wanted to see out of Obama in his first showdown with Romney. The VP, though often rude, controlled the discussion and succinctly portrayed the Republicans as an elite, out-of-touch ticket that would do a tremendous deal of harm to the middle class. He turned in exactly the effort Obama needed, and in a year of odd verbal missteps, redeemed himself in a huge way. He wins the night. How much that matters in a debate for the vice presidency will become clear in polling in the days to come, though. But Biden — and the Democrats whose torch he carried tonight — can rest easy for now.
Thanks so much for following along with The Diamondback. We’ll be back for the second Obama-Romney debate, moderated next Tuesday by CNN’s Candy Crowley.
10:32 p.m.: As the event concludes with closing statements, it’s obvious there’s a lot of animosity between Biden and Ryan. Biden opens his closer by thanking Raddatz and the host college, but Ryan isn’t mentioned, in strong contrast to the friendly front the president presented last week. Ryan makes sure to strike a different tone, explicitly thanking Biden for engaging in a critical debate before the nation. The difference between the two men’s personalities is only beaten by the difference in their ideologies.
10:27 p.m.: Ryan has taken the embarrassment question and gone on offense, jabbing Obama over a series of broken campaign promises. It’s surprising he hasn’t done more of this tonight. The differences between Candidate Obama and President Obama, the gap between rhetoric and results, is one of the political left’s greatest weaknesses. Why didn’t Ryan pounce on this earlier?
10:23 p.m.: The candidates are asked if they’re embarrassed by the over-the-top negativity that has pervaded both sides of this campaign. You cannot help but think that a lot of voters would sympathize if either Biden or Ryan simply said, “Yes, both sides have been embarrassing.” Don’t count on it happening, though.
10:21 p.m.: Raddatz moves the discussion to abortion. Ryan says his vehemently pro-life approach is borne out of not only his Catholicism, but also economic and moral views he has garnered over time. The pro-life Biden, also a Catholic, wants abortion to be a choice for women to make themselves. Frankly, this is one of the least nuanced issues of the campaign. Whatever their reasons (and the religious, social and economic underpinnings are many), Ryan and Biden will offer two distinctly different positions: pro-life and pro-choice. Choose your horse.
10:15 p.m.: We’re transitioning to the conflict in Syria. Raddatz notes that Obama has previously offered American military assistance to revolutionaries in countries with tyrannical madmen leading them. Unlike in Libya last year, though, Biden says Obama has not intervened in Syria because it’s a fundamentally different country and military situation than the one he faced in Tripoli in 2011. Going into Syria now would lead us into another war, he says, as Bashar Assad will not fall nearly as easily as did Moammar Gaddhafi.
Ryan responds that Biden is creating something of a straw man. He says nobody, including Romney, wants to put American troops in the country. He suggests Obama should have offered leadership instead by helping rebels inside the country by arming and supporting them. Ryan thinks Obama erred in letting the United Nations—led by Kofi Annan—try to solve the problem. Even though the UN is the world’s preeminent vehicle for multilateral problem-solving, Ryan says Obama should have taken more of a lead role. Biden, in a shocking turn, disagrees with him.
10:05 p.m.: Ryan: “We don’t want to broadcast to our enemies” a specific date for an American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. This approach, he says, emboldens our enemies to wait out U.S. forces before seizing the country. Biden replies that a timeline is necessary to force local military forces to ultimately take charges. “Fellas, we’re leaving. We’ve trained you; step up,” he urges Afghan forces. Both men have reasonable points here, and this is one of the more interesting strategical clashes of this campaign.
9:58 p.m.: I’m not sure if it’s part of his strategy or not, but Biden’s being obnoxious. He’s also winning.
9:54 p.m.: Raddatz wants to know how Romney and Ryan will cut tax rates across the board by 20 percent and still manage to close the deficit. Ryan won’t offer any specific revenue-raising measures, but he promises that a Romney administration would foster a bipartisan agreement to ensure the arithmetic adds up. Biden hits back, “Let me translate.” The translation, in short: not happening. Biden says that the only possible avenues to lowering tax rates and closing the deficit would also hurt the middle class, ideas such as eliminating the mortgage tax deduction on homeowners. “It’s mathematically impossible,” Biden says. Ryan shoots back, “It’s been done before” by Ronald Reagan. This debate is now a he-said-he-said shouting match.
9:50 p.m.: Ryan poignantly addresses the American middle class over Obama’s economic policy. “Watch out, middle class; the tax bill is coming to you.” Ryan has been speaking from a script. Biden, needless to say, has not.
9:47 p.m.: Ryan hits Biden hard on his overzealous approach and “misleading” statements. “This is what politicians do when they don’t have a record to run on,” he says. It is abundantly clear that Ryan wants this debate to be a referendum on Obama’s lousy economic record. Biden wants it to be about Romney and Ryan’s corrosive plans for the economy and healthcare. The questions are simple: Who do you want to believe, and through which lens do you want to view the election?
9:40 p.m.: As authoritative as Biden’s been, he’s been equally dismissive and sometimes outright disrespectful toward his opponent, laughing and interrupting Ryan frequently. A little more diplomacy would behoove him, although it might make the debate itself less entertaining. Body language matters, even if it’s not as important as the words behind it.
9:38 p.m.: Raddatz, the moderator, is forcefully controlling the debate. Perhaps she saw the carpet impression Jim Lehrer did during the Obama-Romney debate and decided not to let the same thing happen to her.
9:36 p.m.: Biden is pouring it on now. Ryan has been critical of Obama’s signature economic stimulus package, but Biden correctly notes that Ryan himself asked for money from that program for his Wisconsin district. Ryan says he was “advocating for constituents,” which is an explicit part of a congressman’s job. But Ryan’s in a hypocritical bind on this one. Biden is taking the opportunities to pounce that Obama inexplicably passed up during his debate with Romney last week. Biden’s aggressiveness has Ryan on his heels, and the congressman is rambling in a similar manor to Obama during the first debate. Ryan, in response, attempts to move the debate to healthcare, where he’s back on the offensive.
9:31 p.m.: Raddatz shifts the discussion from foreign policy to the economy. Biden gets the first word in, and he uses it to assault Ryan and Republicans over their commitment to Grover Norquist’s no-taxes-at-all-costs pledge. “Take some responsibility,” he tells the other side.
Ryan responds: “We’re going in the wrong direction.” 15 percent of the country, he notes, is living in poverty. 23 million Americans are struggling for work, and the remedy, he says, is Romney’s five-point economic plan (summarized here by The Los Angeles Times). Ryan touts Romney as a decent, generous man. Romney’s history of charitable donations backs that up.
Ryan also notes that Romney, like Biden, is prone to verbal gaffes and should be excused for some of his most unfortunate soundbites. Biden says that Romney’s infamous “47 percent” line at a private fundraiser was much more than misspeaking, something the veep is rather known for.
9:22 p.m.: The debate moves from Libya to Iran, which is probably a good thing for the Obama campaign. The best Biden can hope for on Libya is to absolve his boss of blame for a tragic attack. On Iran, though, he can accuse Romney and Ryan of belligerence and overeagerness to drag America into an irresponsible war.
Biden says Obama’s sanctions on Iran are “the most crippling of sanctions in the history of sanctions.” He feels “quite confident we can deal a serious blow” to any Iranian nuclear ambitions, if that’s what’s necessary to keep the ayatollahs from developing a nuclear weapon. Ryan, Biden says, is talking too loosely of war. In a country that knows plenty about Middle Eastern wars, that’s not a bad play—or a bad idea—on Biden’s part.
Ryan responds that the Iranian leaders are not “changing their mind” in their desire to develop such a weapon. Biden tees off on Ryan for suggesting nothing more than measures Obama has already endorsed.
It’s not difficult to tell who’s been on offense so far: Biden.
9:10 p.m.: On the one-month anniversary of the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, Raddatz opens the questioning by asking Biden if the Obama administration is at fault for “a massive intelligence failure” and security lapse. Biden absolves Obama of blame for the attack and promises to hunt down its perpetrators.
Ryan responds that it’s becoming “more troubling by the day” that Obama has acted indecisively over the issue. He says we are seeing the “unraveling of the Obama foreign policy” before our eyes.
Biden is not thrilled with Ryan’s line. “With all due respect, that’s a bunch of malarkey,” he says. He notes that the U.S. has spent huge dollar figures on enhanced embassy security and that Romney has politicized a tragedy.
9:02 p.m.: ABC opens its broadcast by hailing Biden and Ryan as “face-to-face for the first time” for this debate. Since they spent years working in the U.S. Capitol at the same time–Biden as a Delaware senator and Ryan as a Wisconsin representative–that seems rather unlikely.
8:55 p.m.: Hello, and welcome to The Diamondback’s live blog of tonight’s vice presidential debate. Starting at 9 p.m., Vice President Joe Biden and Republican challenger Paul Ryan will square off in the fourth-most important political debate of this election cycle.
While it’s true that the president, not the VP, calls the country’s most important shots, the veep is a critical number-two to the leader of the free world. The ideological divisions between Biden and Ryan — not to mention the electoral stakes involved — should provide plenty of must-see political TV. Martha Raddatz will moderate, and we’ll blog. Glad to have you along.
