The VP debate

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So Ryan and Biden went at it last night. I missed it, I literally turned on the radio to hear "and that concludes the debate", but as I understand it the debate was a close one: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/11/cnn-poll-on-debate-winner-ryan-48-biden-44/?hpt=hp_t1

Sounds like some people thought Biden was in more control, but other people thought Biden was also being condescending for interrupting Ryan and laughing him off, while Ryan calmly explained his points.

[Kyban]

I would say Biden won simply by the fact that Ryan's only defense was that Biden was rude.

[wittdooley]

Here's the thing about debates: the people that are watching them to make a decision are looking more at the person and less at the points they're making.

But to be honest, I don't really know what to make of the debate last night. Biden's agenda was clearly to be "on the offensive" as a response to many of the Democratic critics that said Obama was far too passive (I think he was merely unprepared, not passive). That being said, he was, to me, alarmingly aggressive. He interrupted a ton. He was condescending a ton. Every time Biden said "friend" I couldn't help but hear him it come out as "boy." It was really peculiar.

Ryan impressed me with his response to Bidens attitude, but not nearly as much with his knowledge--and definitely not as much as Romney did against Obama. I actually think I like Biden overall; I think he is eloquent when he speaks, I think it's pretty obvious that he has the experience to speak knowledgably about most topics, but last night he just rubbed me the wrong way.

Truth be told, I think if we didn't have two political parties I could see Romney and Biden running together VERY successfully. As it stands, I think Biden probably 'won' the debate on content, but lost points in my eyes on character.

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One of the callers on the radio I listened to after I just missed the debate mentioned the age thing as well. She was a college student, and she pointed out that she was part of the youth vote that was one of Obama's main supporters last election, and she found several comments to be offensive not just to Ryan, but to her by extension because they effectively said "you're too young to be competent".