Both sides claimed victory in the spirited debate between vice-president Joe Biden and the Republican nominee Paul Ryan last night.
The two candidates crossed swords regarding the September 11th attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, how to stop the Iranian nuclear programme, the economy, Medicare, taxation, defence spending, Afghanistan, Syria and abortion.
For Democrats, Mr Biden performed as president Barack Obama should have in Denver. “Joe Biden had a mission,” said the media consultant Alex Castellanos, referring to the next presidential debate in Long Island. “He bought Barack Obama another week.”
“Anyone who watched that debate knows we won,” Jim Messina, Mr Obama’s campaign advisor, said in the ‘spin room’ after the debate. “Joe Biden was a fierce advocate for the middle class… He looked right at Paul Ryan and asked ‘How are you going to deal with the $5 trillion (shortfall created by a 20 per cent tax cut), and he couldn’t do it.”
Dan Senor, foreign policy advisor to the Romney campaign, claimed Mr Ryan, who is a foreign policy novice, won on foreign policy questions because “we have not got to a clear understanding of what happened (in Benghazi) on the anniversary of 9/11. This administration has blamed everything and everybody. Now they are blaming Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. The Vice President contradicted the State Department (by saying the White House had not received a request for better protection for the consulate, where four US diplomats were murdered).”
Notwithstanding continuing questions over the attack in Libya, Mr Biden had an edge over Mr Ryan on substance. He pointed out that Mr Romney said it “was a tragic mistake” to have withdrawn from Iraq. Mr Romney had said he “wouldn’t move heaven and earth to get bin Laden”.
Mr Ryan reproached Mr Obama for having mentioned a video about the Prophet Mohamed six times in his speech to the UN General Assembly.
Mr Ryan repeatedly said the world was watching “the unravelling of the Obama foreign policy”. Defence cuts – which were agreed by Democrats and Republicans during the 2011 debt ceiling crisis – “project weakness,” he claimed.
“With all due respect, that’s a bunch of malarkey,” Mr Biden replied. A ripple of laughter went through the auditorium, and Google reported a record number of searches for “malarkey”.
Mr Ryan alluded to Mr Biden’s reputation for making gaffes, in reference to Mr Romney’s now infamous "47 per cent" video. “The Vice President very well knows sometimes words don’t come out of your mouth quite the right way.”
Mr Ryan seemed to falter when he said he agreed with Mr Biden that the time line for an Iranian nuclear weapon was “probably longer”. But when he reproached the president for recording a television talk show rather than meet Benjamin Netanyahu in New York, and for failing to dissuade Iran from pursuing its nuclear programme, Mr Biden accused him of speaking “a bunch of stuff”.
Asked by the moderator, Martha Raddatz, “What does that mean, a bunch of stuff?” Mr Biden said “It’s simply inaccurrate."
“It’s Irish,” Mr Ryan interjected.
“We Irish call it malarkey,” Mr Biden repeated.
Mr Ryan seemed to contradict himself on Afghanistan, saying, “We agree with the administration on their 2014 transition,” then insisting that commanders must have what that need, that “we don’t want to embolden our enemies to hold and wait out for us and then take over.” Mr Biden acted incredulous when Mr Ryan said it was a mistake to send fewer Americans to the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan, which Mr Biden said must now be the job of the Afghans.
On Syria, Mr Biden insisted that the "last thing America needs is to get in another ground war in the Middle East.”
After struggling to say what a Romney administration would do differently there, Mr Ryan concluded, “I – we would not be going through the UN in all of these things.”
On abortion, Mr Ryan said he did not “see how a person can separate their public life from their private life or their faith.” The policy of a Romney administration would be “to oppose abortions with the exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.”
Mr Biden, who like Mr Ryan is a practicing Catholic, said he accepts the Church’s position in his personal life. “But I refuse to impose … that on others, unlike my friend here, the Congressman. I do not believe that we have a right to tell … women they can’t control their body.” Mr Biden also warned that if Mr Romney wins the election, he is likely to appoint Supreme Court justices who will outlaw abortion.
If Mr Biden won on substance, Mr Ryan may have won on form, because Mr Biden grimaced, laughed and interrupted him repeatedly. The vice-president’s son Beau, the attorney general of Delaware, responded to criticism of his father’s demeanour saying, “He was having fun. My father was enjoying himself. He was in command of that stage.”
Polls showed voters saw the debate largely as a draw.
Greg Valliere, who analyses politics for investors at Potomac Research Group, said he thought Mr Ryan "won on points," but that Mr Biden had energised the Democrats and stopped the slide.
"This entertaining debate was all about Biden, who easily cleared a low bar," Mr Valliere said in a note to clients today.
In a sign the race is tightening again, Mr Romney led Mr Obama by 1 per centage point, 46 to 45 per cent, among likely voters in the Reuters/Ipsos daily online tracking poll released today.
Mr Romney led by 3 percentage points yesterday's poll. Most poll respondents were questioned before the vice presidential debate.
Additional reporting: Reuters
