Last night the Vice President, Joe Biden, squared up against
Congressman Paul Ryan in the only VP debate. For Biden this was an opportunity
to begin the Democratic fight back following last week’s presidential debate. The
debate was moderated by Martha Raddatz and it focused on foreign policy and the
economy.
From Biden’s first reply to Ryan I knew this debate was
going to be very different to last week. Biden wasn’t going to let Ryan get
away with lies and half-truths. This is how it went:
Biden: “With all due
respect that’s a bunch of malarkey.”#
Raddatz: “And why is
that so?”
Biden: “Because not a
single thing he said is accurate.”
It was a very strong start for Biden, certainly a lot better
than Ryan.
 |
| The general feel of the debate on Twitter |
Foreign policy is, of course, a strong point for the Obama administration,
so the debate focusing on that area was a natural advantage for Biden. The debate
mostly covered the Middle East as Libya, Syria, Israel, Iran and Afghanistan
were all discussed. For many the weakest moment of the debate for Ryan was when
he discussed Afghanistan at the end. Ryan said that it was a disgrace that the
Obama campaign had pulled 22,000 US troops out of the most dangerous provinces.
This meant (according to him) fewer men doing the same job, endangering those
left. Biden’s retort to Ryan was brilliant, as all US troops pulled out were
replaced with Afghans. The following course saw Ryan flailing.
Ryan: We don’t want to
send fewer people to the [east]…
Biden: That’s why we
should send Americans in to do the job, instead of the – you’d rather Americans
be going in doing the job instead of the trainees?
Ryan: No. We are
already sending Americans to do the job, but fewer of them. That’s the whole
problem.
Biden: That’s right.
We’re sending in more Afghans to do the job, Afghans to do the job.
Ryan also got tied up over Syria and Iran. Although he
blasted the current administration for how it’s dealing with both countries, he
didn’t seem to have a remotely different policy when it came to Syria. On Iran
all he called for as tougher sanctions without suggesting how much tighter they
could be.
Biden also performed strongly on the economy, this is
supposed to be Ryan’s strong point and he totally underperformed. One of Ryan’s
biggest problems for Ryan is his inability to tell the truth or be specific. He
says that the Romney-Ryan plan would help create 12 million jobs, yet he never
specified how. He claims that six reports back up Romney’s tax plan. That is
simply not true.
The issue of Medicare was brought up, much to Biden’s
delight. Biden went on the offensive, claiming a Romney presidency would
destroy the “guarantee of medicare” by turning it into a voucher scheme. This is
an argument on which the Democrats really do have the advantage, even a
majority of registered Republicans favour keeping medicare as it is, rather
than privatising it. At one point Biden looked straight at the camera and said “Folks,
follow your instincts.” in terms of who to trust with medicare.
The next debate will take place on Tuesday and will be
between President Obama and Mitt Romney. Unfortunately this will make it
difficult to measure the direct impact of the VP debate; it’s certainly far too
early to tell but pay attention over the next few days. As the debate started Obama
and Romney were basically neck-and-neck in the polls, according to HuffPost
averages Obama’s lead was a mere 0.2%. Instant polls showed that the public
felt that Biden won the debate, but more important are the undecided voters. By
huge margins they believed that Biden put up the stronger performance. What
affect it has will be difficult to measure, but it almost certainly will have a measurable impact.
 |
| One of the more meme-worthy moments in the debate |
No comments:
Post a Comment