US Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan quarreled aggressively on Thursday night over the administration’s handling of foreign affairs and the nation’s economic recovery, using a debate here to highlight the sharp contrasts facing voters in November.
The two vice presidential candidates not only picked up where President Obama and Mitt Romney left off at their debate last week, they also expanded the arguments into a combative and wide-ranging discussion ranging from Iran’s ability to obtain nuclear weapons to the unemployment rate. They delivered some of the most forceful exchanges of the campaign, with neither man holding back.
Within a single minute of the debate’s first 25 minutes, Biden worked in three attacks that Democrats were disappointed Obama did not level against Romney, referring to Romney’s opposition to the bailout of the auto industry, his statement that the nation’s foreclosure crisis would have to “run its course” and his comment about the “47%” of Americans who he said were overreliant on government benefits.
“These guys bet against America all the time,” Biden said.
But Ryan offered a point-by-point rebuttal, showing fluency in foreign affairs. He said the administration had no “credibility” in its international approach to Iran, because it had sent mixed signals, and that the tough sanctions that are in place came about only because of the fortitude of Congress, as the administration sought to “water down” the sanctions.
He assailed the administration’s handling of the terrorist strike in Libya that killed the U.S. ambassador, saying: “It took the president two weeks to acknowledge that this was a terrorist attack.” (Obama labeled the incident an “act of terror” during his remarks on Sept. 12, a day after the attack, in the White House Rose Garden.)
A Romney administration, Ryan said, would send Marines to protect an outpost like the one in Benghazi. “Look, if we are hit by terrorists, we’re going to call it for what it is — a terrorist attack,” he said.
Ryan chastised Obama, questioning why the United States did not have protection for the diplomatic compound. He declared, “This is becoming more troubling by the day.”
Important moment in race
But as Biden reminded Ryan that he and House Republicans cut the budget for the security, he sought to use the question about the attack on Libya to immediately begin the attack on Romney’s positioning. He contrasted Obama’s overall foreign policy record with Romney’s, ranging from Iraq to the killing of Osama bin Laden.
“The president has led with a steady hand and clear vision: Gov. Romney hasn’t,” Biden said. “The last thing we need is another war.”
The men repeatedly talked over each other, with Biden growing visibly agitated at Ryan’s remarks, which at one point he called “malarkey.”
But Biden made it clear from the start that he was not going to repeat the mistakes of Obama. And Martha Raddatz of ABC News, the moderator, made it clear she was not going to repeat what many people in both parties saw as the mistakes of the last moderator, Jim Lehrer, and took control of the debate with tough questions and sharp follow-ups.
“This is a bunch of stuff,” Biden said at one point, offering a forceful rebuttal of criticism that the administration has not aggressively worked with Israel to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“What does that mean, a bunch of stuff?” Raddatz said.
“It’s Irish,” Ryan jumped in.
The vice presidential candidates arrived here at an important moment in the race, with Republicans eager to build upon Romney’s strong showing at his first debate with Obama. The performance energized the Romney campaign, created angst among supporters of the president and prompted some voters to take a second look at Romney in the final weeks of the contest.
Here in Danville, on the campus of Centre College, the only debate of the campaign between Biden and Ryan took on a sense of magnitude that extended beyond a typical vice presidential debate.
As Democrats demanded a more aggressive posture against the GOP ticket than Obama displayed last week in Denver, Biden faced pressure to reassure the campaign’s nervous supporters, even as he worked not to be too forceful and overplay his hand against Ryan.
The two men walked on stage in Newlin Hall and took their seats around a table, rather than standing at lecterns as their counterparts did last week.
The choice facing voters was clear in substance and in style between Biden, 69, and Ryan, 42. But even though their age difference spans more than a generation — Ryan is one year younger than Biden’s oldest son — they are far better acquainted from serving together on Capitol Hill than Obama and Romney, who had not dealt with each other until this race.
When Raddatz moved to the economy, Biden went back on the attack, bringing up Romney’s comments on 47 percent of Americans being dependent on government. Defending Obama for the auto industry bailout, Biden said Romney had wanted to let Detroit go bankrupt.
“But it shouldn’t be surprising for a guy who says 47 percent of the American people are unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives,” Biden said. (Romney did not make the comment about Detroit going bankrupt. It was a headline on an op-ed that Romney wrote. Romney repeated the line on television.)
Ryan responded that the country was going in the wrong direction, reminding Biden that the unemployment rate of the vice president’s own hometown had grown to 10 percent from 8.5 percent since Obama took office. “This is not what a real recovery looks like,” he said.
On abortion, the contrast between the candidates — both of whom are Catholic — was made stark. “The policy of a Romney administration will be to oppose abortion with the exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother,” Ryan said.
Biden countered: “Life begins at conception. That’s the church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life,” he said. “But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews and — I just refuse to impose that on others.”
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