KTH: Vice presidential debate double-talk
Both candidates made statements that need to be further scrutinized; Ryan on the stimulus and Biden on the Libya attack. Anderson Cooper is Keeping Them Honest.
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Post by: Filed under: 2012 Election • Joe Biden • Keeping Them Honest • Paul Ryan • Vice Presidential Debate |
5 things we learned from the VP debate
Editor's note: Keeping Them Honest, Anderson Cooper is fact-checking the claims made in the debate, and we'll have expert analysis of the candidates' facial expressions and body language. Watch AC360 tonight at 8 and 10 p.m. ET.
Vice President Joe Biden and Republican Paul Ryan, the man who wants his job, exchanged fire over taxes, Medicare, national security and some animated facial expressions in their only debate before Election Day.
Here are five things we learned from Thursday night:
1. Biden brought it
We expected Ryan, not Biden to bring a three-ring binder full of facts and figures to the debate. It's not that the data-driven Ryan didn't show up with an arm full of his statistics; it is just that Biden did so as well.
And Biden's aggressive offense from the very beginning drowned out Ryan until about 45 minutes into the debate.
Vice presidential debate snapshots
The only 2012 vice presidential debate came and went and left everyone talking (and tweeting) about each candidate's strong performance. Wolf Blitzer said it "will go down in history." Anderson Cooper called it "riveting." We asked on Facebook how you would describe it and got: Distracting, animated, Putin, war, disrespectful, draw, factual, spicy, wow, educational, chaotic, lively, substantive, buttkicking, fun, outstanding, awesome, interesting, unwatched, pathetic, rehearsed and malarkey, among other words. Have anything to add? Leave it in a comment.
Click on each picture to enlarge.
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- How it all began: Vice President Joe Biden and Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan shake hands before the debate on October 10, 2012. Photo credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/GettyImages
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- Vice President Joe Biden and Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan during the debate on October 10, 2012. Photo credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/GettyImages
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- Vice President Joe Biden and Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan during the debate on October 10, 2012. Photo credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/GettyImages
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- Vice President Biden's reactions are being praised by some as passionate and criticized by others as rude. Photo credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/GettyImages
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- The End. Vice President Joe Biden and Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan depart the stage following their debate on October 10, 2012. Photo credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/GettyImages
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- (Photo credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/GettyImages)
Decoding debate body language
Ahead of tonight's vice presidential debate, Amy Cuddy reveals what facial expressions and non-verbal cues say about the candidates.
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Post by: Filed under: 2012 Election • Vice Presidential Debate |
In the debate, what mattered
Program Note:
Sarah Palin and Joe Biden face off on the issues.
Join John King for the best analysis of the Vice Presidential debate!
Biden-Palin Debate
Saturday and Sunday, 9p ET
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John King | BIO
Chief National Correspondent
It was a rude intrusion on the morning-after analysis of the one and only debate between the vice presidential candidates: a new government report showing the US economy lost 159,000 jobs in September – the ninth month in a row of job losses.
Tough economic news just as the House opened debate, for a second time, on a $700 billion rescue plan aimed at stabilizing the financial and credit markets. This time, the House approved the plan, and by Friday afternoon President Bush had signed it into law.
Proof that in the big picture, the face-off between the running mates has a limited shelf life as the dominant political story. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.
It was a big event for two very different audiences, maybe three.
First: Republicans.
A win/win debate
David Gergen
AC360 Contributor
CNN Senior Political Analyst
Republican conservatives should be happy tonight: the Sarah Palin who showed up for the debate was the same spirited, authentic woman when she was announced, not the one who sat down with Katie Couric.
While she made a few small mistakes and often avoided direct answers, she deserves credit for performing as well as she did in a moment of huge pressure.
Her problem was that the Joe Biden who showed up delivered the best debate performance of his life. He was extremely well informed, especially on foreign policy, and he argued his case with force and occasional eloquence. Like Palin, he didn't make any big mistakes either — and importantly, he was never condescending toward her.
How'd they do? The best political team's analysis
Amy Holmes: 10:40p ET – Palin: A+. The plus is for wildly exceeding expectations. She more than held her own. She was polished, direct, folksy, and on message. She stressed her personal experience both as a mom and as a governor, from the kitchen table to the executive branch, her record as a reformer and bipartisan deal maker. She even got Biden to agree with her. Read more...
Roland Martin: Expectations are high for Palin AND Biden. Many of you read my commentary this week on CNN.com and I haven’t changed my opinion.
I’m tired of Washington journalists continuing to say that the expectations are low, and the bar even lower, for Gov. Sarah Palin.
And the same goes for Sen. Joe Biden. Read more...
Amy Holmes: 9:40p ET – Were those Katie Couric interviews a devious head fake? I've heard Biden say at least twice now that he agrees with Palin. First on the issue of windfall profits, and then on the issue of gay marriage. Regarding the first, he actually said he and Obama would like to do what the Governor did in Alaska. Economic conservatives won't like it. But for debate purposes: advantage Palin.
Candy Crowley: 9:35p ET – Palin veers off course — the question is about helping consumers with crushing debt, and she's responding with energy policy. Politicians frequently change the subject, but this was a pretty obvious 180.
Bill Schneider on the V.P. Debate
Bill Schneider
CNN Senior Political Analyst
10:36p ET: Palin's primary strength is her outside of Washington status. She doesn't act like an insider, she doesn't talk like an insider, and a lot of voters may respond to that.
10:24p ET: Palin's answers do not lack confidence, they lack coherence.
10:20p ET: Reform, corruption, maverick…these are words that Palin often uses, but she needs to define them.
10:16p ET: Palin say's she'll be a maverick, but she doesn't talk about how her administration would be different from McCain. She isn't drawing any kind of distinction.
10:14p ET: Biden's in an awkward position…Biden voted for the use of force in Iraq, Obama came out against it from the beginning.
It's a problem that he shares with Hillary Clinton.
Debate expectations from Obama camp
Program Note:
It's the showdown everyone's been waiting for.
Sarah Palin and Joe Biden face off on the issues.
Join the best political team on television for your front row seat!
Debate Night in America: Vice Presidential Debate
Tonight, beginning 8p ET
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Suzanne Malveaux | BIO
CNN White House Correspondent
I talked to Obama campaign spokeswoman Linda Douglass who just arrived at debate site. Nothing surprising regarding Joe Biden, just some points:
– Biden is feeling “pretty relaxed.”
– He has lots of family members coming to the debate (he’s got famously big family.)
– “Biden will make a clear convincing case that the Obama-Biden ticket will bring change from the last 8 years of the failed Bush policies.”
– “Will provide a sharp contrast to the McCain-Palin ticket, and argue that the opposing candidate is more of the same.”
– They “expect Palin will deliver strong sharp, pointed attacks.”
– Biden will respond by “trying to stay connected to voters. He’ll do his best to avoid getting drawn into game-playing.”
It's all about Sarah Palin
Program Note:
It's the showdown everyone's been waiting for.
Sarah Palin and Joe Biden face off on the issues.
Join the best political team on television for your front row seat!
Debate Night in America: Vice Presidential Debate
Tonight, beginning 8p ET
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James Carville
CNN Political Analyst
Let's just call this the NASCAR debate. If Palin doesn't crash, the spectators will surely be left feeling like they didn't get their money's worth. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to tonight's Vice-Presidential debate in St. Louis, Missouri.
Shortly after John McCain announced Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, I was accurately quoted as saying that she is "uniquely and supremely unqualified" to seek the position for which she is running. And I have seen nothing to date that refutes that notion.
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