7:50 Hey Ladies! In ten minutes we enter Paul's Boutique.
I'm going to try to do a few things differently this time. Last debate I pretty much tried to transcribe the whole thing, which was (a) too much work and (b) somewhat incoherent. So this time I'm going to be a little less verbose and more observational. Or something.
7:52 Benster is sitting on the ol' couch next to me and he might have a comment or two to make as things progress. So this will be a live blog with HYYYYYYYYPPPPPPPE! We do have a problem with making picks for tomorrow, since he'll be at the Boy Scout Camporee this weekend, so we may have to do a little tweaking on the picks.
7:54 We've switched from the Baltimore Orioles/New York Yankees game to the debate now. I'm disappointed that the Reds lost this afternoon. Nothing against the Giants, but I was pulling for a Reds/Orioles World Series and the obligatory Brooks Robinson flashbacks. Guess that will have to wait.
8:00 Showtime! Martha Raddatz is on. She lays out her plan. We'll see if the candidates nuke her plans in the same way that Romney and Obama did. Biden comes out in the blue tie and Ryan brings the red power tie. Seems to be a trend.
8:03 Libya right out of the box. Raddatz asks if it was an intelligence failure. Biden promises to bring the perps to justice. Mistakes were made but won't be made again. Biden now switches from the topic to Romney. Lays out the contrast as Biden sees it. Now we're back to bin Laden. Of course they'd prefer to talk about bin Laden.
8:05 Ryan -- we mourn the loss. They sent the U.N. Ambassador out to talk about YouTube. If we're elected, we're going to call it what it is. Shouldn't we have a Marine attachment in Benghazi. First they blamed YouTube video, now they blame Romney/Ryan. Ryan brings up Beau Biden. We are projecting weakness abroad. Unraveling of Obama foreign policy.
8:07 Raddatz asks Ryan about Romney's statement. Ryan says "it's never to early to speak out about our values." We should always stand up for our values. And don't cut defense. Biden says not a single thing is accurate.
8:08 Biden claims Ryan cut budget. Hard to do when there's no budget? Biden doesn't understand what Ryan is talking about in re weakness.
8:09 Raddatz asks Biden what he was first told. Biden says they were told by intelligence that there were protests in Benghazi. I'll bet we'll hear from those intelligence agencies.
8:10 Biden doubles down. He's filibustering.
8:11 Raddatz asks if we should apologize for burning Korans? Ryan -- we should not apologizing for our values. Requests for security in Benghazi were denied. We did not give our ambassador a Marine detachment. It's unraveling before our eyes.
8:12 Raddatz cuts Ryan off. On to Iran. She's not going to get Lehrered.
8:13 Ryan -- we cannot allow Iran to have a bomb. Ryan lays out the last four years. Administration blocked Congress every step of the way. Sanctions came in spite of Obama administration. Iran is brazen. You have to have the Ayatollahs change their minds. Won't happen, Ryan says, because Obama administration is not credible.
8:15 Biden -- "Incredible." Biden asks if Ryan wants war? Biden -- we could deal with Iran if we want to. Biden says Iran is a "good way away" from having a bomb. Accusing Ryan of bluster. What more can the president do? Period.
8:17 Ryan -- what do the Ayatollahs see? They are spinning centrifuges. They see us distancing ourselves from Israel. When options are on the table.
8:18 Raddatz cuts off Ryan again. How can you solve this in two months? Ryan starts to answer, Raddatz cuts him off. Twice. Now Biden starts talking. Obama has talked to "Bibi" many times. This is a bunch of stuff. "This is a bunch of stuff." Biden says Iran doesn't have a weapon.
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8:20 Ryan -- sanctions are in place despite -- Raddatz cuts Ryan off again. Now Biden keeps talking. This is amusing. Ryan is waiting his turn, yet again.
8:21 Raddatz asks about Gates statement -- the ayatollahs see equivocation. Silent for nine days on Green Revolution. When they see our actions -- Raddatz cuts him off again. What about WAAAAR?
8:22 Biden is dominating time. Don't know if he's dominating the discussion, though.
8:23 Raddatz now talks about jobs. Mentions that Obama promised 6% unemployment. Can either side get 6% unemployment. Biden runs through the Obama greatest hits. Says 47% of the people are unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives. He's good and outraged now. Biden's had it up to here -- now he throws out Grover Norquist, they should level the playing field. He's getting his talking points in. Doubles down on $500 billion tax cut thing, too.
8:25 Ryan -- Scranton has 10% unemployment now. Biden tries to cut Ryan off again. Ryan is being very polite. We're headed in the wrong direction. This is not what a real recovery looks like. They keep misquoting Romney about Detroit. Romney paid for college for a family there. Ryan gives Biden a shot about "knowing how sometimes the words don't come out the right way."
8:28 Biden milks his own personal story. Romney had no commitment to Detroit. I've never met two guys who are more down on America. If they'd get out of the way and let us do what we want, it would get better. Just get out of the way. Show me something. Now the recession is Ryan's fault.
8:31 Ryan -- let's not forget that they full control in 2009 and could do what they wanted. Passed the stimulus. He starts to explain and Raddatz cuts him off again. Vice President was in charge of stimulus. Raddatz cuts him off again and lets Biden start filibuster. Biden gets a lot of talking time.
8:33 Ryan "was it a good idea to build green things" and now Biden cuts him off again. Ryan asks about the 5 million green jobs and Raddatz cuts him off again.
8:34 Ryan says Medicare needs to change. Talks about SSI helping him and his mother. Needs to reform things for younger people. Biden is laughing. Ryan explains what IPAB is. "They haven't put a credible solution on the table." Biden is still laughing. Not sure how this will play.
8:36 Biden "I've heard that death panel debate from Sarah Palin." AMA and AARP supported it. Well, not anymore, but we'll leave that aside. Who do you believe? The AMA? Me? I expect we'll hear from the AMA on this one tomorrow. And by the way, we won't privatize Social Security.
8:38 Ryan -- here's the problem, they got caught. Their own actuary explained that 1 out of 6 will go out of business. Biden keeps interrupting and Ryan tries to stop him. So now Raddatz cuts Ryan off. Biden keeps cutting Ryan off. Ryan keeps trying to explain things and Biden keeps talking over him.
8:40 Ryan now starts cutting Biden off. The strategy seems to be working.
8:41 Raddatz tries to bail Biden out. Now we're back to 1983 and Tip O'Neill and the Gipper. We will not be part of the voucher system.
8:42 Ryan starts to explain, Raddatz cuts him off again. Biden continues to cut him off. Wow. Amazing.
8:43 Hard for Ryan to explain his position when he is not allowed to. So it goes.
8:44 Biden -- who would you trust?
8:44 Ryan -- we are not going to jeopardize -- cut off again. And Raddatz wants to move on, of course.
8:45 Raddatz -- who will pay more in taxes. Biden says rich will pay a little more. Says Ryan is holding tax cut hostage to the super wealthy. This is unconscionable. The last people who need help are 120,000 families.
8:47 Ryan -- the entire premise is to create jobs. 28% of income is enough. Obama wants to take up to 44%. If you taxed everyone over 250,000 at 100%, it would pay for government for 98 days. Lots of numbers. Canadians have dropped tax rate to 15%. Tax increase will cost 710,000 jobs.
8:49 Raddatz -- do you have the specifics? Ryan -- O'Neill and Reagan worked out of a framework. Says Romney will do the same. Biden tries to cut him off again. Raddatz says no specifics.
8:50 Biden says small businesses are hedge funds. Carried interest and captial gains. Says they'll cut the mortgage deduction.
8:51 Ryan -- he's wrong about that. Biden keeps cutting him of. Biden is cutting Ryan off at every turn. Biden keeps cutting Ryan off. But you know that.
8:53 Millionaries don't need the money.
8:54 Ryan keeps trying, but Biden shouts him down. So Raddatz turns to defense.
8:55 Ryan tries to explain, but now Biden and Raddatz both cut him off.
8:56 Biden quotes Joint Chiefs. Ryan tries to respond. Raddatz won't let him. On to Afghanistan.
8:57 Raddatz -- why not leave now? Ryan -- we don't want to lose the gains we've had. Talks about what has been accomplished. We don't want to lose the gains. We'd support Petraeus and Mullen. Not so sure about negotiating with the Taliban.
8:58 Biden has been to Afghanistan 20 times. We've decimated al Qaida and we've got bin Laden. We will be out of there in 2014. It does not depend for us. The Afghans need to take care of themselves. We are leaving in 2014. Period. Biden likes the word "Period."
9:00 Ryan -- we don't to stay. He wants his buddy from Janesville home. We don't want to extend beyond 2014, that's the point we're making. What we are witnessing is the unraveling of the Obama foreign policy.
9:01 Ryan we don't want to broadcast a departure date to our enemies. What we don't want to embolden our enemies.
9:02 Biden -- Ryan's statement is bizzare. 49 allies agree. 57 flavors.
9:03 Biden -- unless you set a deadline, they won't step up. That's the only way it works.
9:03 Raddatz -- military generals were concerned that the troops were pulled too soon. Raddatz actually challenges Biden on this -- generals follow orders.
9:05 Ryan explains that in the winter, fighting goes down because the Taliban can't get in to fight. We pulled troops out while fighting season is still on. Less troops to do more work.
9:06 Biden says Ryan is conflating issues. Ryan says the season is still going.
On to Syria.
9:07 Biden says Syria is different than Libya. We are working hand in glove with everyone in the region to identify who should get helps when Assad goes, and he will go. What more could they do besides boots on the ground? Are they proposing putting troops on the ground?
9:09 Ryan -- nobody is proposing sending troops to Syria. What we'd do differently? We wouldn't let Russia dictate our policy. Assad is still there. More foreign fighters are coming in. We could have identified things earlier if we'd gotten started. But we let Kofi Annan try to run the show.
9:11 Biden filibusters.
9:12 Raddatz -- what happens if Assad hangs on? Ryan continues to say we should not have waited. Russia is still.
9:13 Ryan -- we intervene with boots on the ground only in our national interest. We might help with humanitarian aid, but boots are a different matter.
9:14 Raddatz -- two Catholics. How does it affect your view on abortion?
9:15 Ryan -- my faith informs my views. I base my views on abortion on reason and science. We saw the baby's heartbeat. I'm pro-life because of this. He goes on religious liberties. Now abortion is taxpayer funded. The Vice President wouldn't second-guess China's one child policy.
9:17 Biden talks about Catholic social doctrine. With regard to abortion, Biden accepts the personal judgment of the Church, but refuses to "impose" it on others. No assault on religious liberty.
9:19 Ryan tries to get back to religious liberty issue. Raddatz won't let him.
9:20 Biden says Roe v. Wade is in the balance. Watch Bork.
9:21 Closing question. Raddatz says a soldier is dismayed by campaign. Are you embarrassed by the tone?
9:22 Biden -- we only have one sacred obligation as a government -- to keep soldiers safe. Soldier shouldn't be part of the 47%. That's a world-class demagogue moment. Biden -- does Romney have the commitment to the middle class. Slipshod comments by Romney.
9:24 Ryan -- I'd thank him for service. We won't cut off resources. President Obama is demonizing people because he doesn't have a record to run on. Runs down broken promises, or putative broken promises. A debt crisis is coming. Leaders run to problems to fix problems. Obama has done nothing about it. The president doesn't have a plan, he has a speech. CBO can't estimate speeches. We get speeches, not leadership. Romney is uniquely qualified.
9:26 Biden -- the budgets Ryan proposes will "eviscerate" programs that benefit people.
9:27 Ryan -- plenty of fine people could lead this country -- but we need someone to take action. On to the laundry list.
9:28 Biden -- my record stands for itself. My whole life has been dedicated to leveling the playing field for the middle class.
Closing statement for Biden. We inherited a God-awful mess. We acted. Again says Romney hates on 47%. All people want is an even shot.
Closing statement for Ryan. We face a big choice. What type of country are we going to be. Obama had his chance and he made his choices. It's not working. 23 million Americans are struggling for work. 15 million Americans are out of work. You deserve better. We want to earn your support. Mitt Romney is uniquely qualified to get things done. Mitt Romney will not duck the tough issues or blame others. We will reapply the founding principles.
And we're done. On to the spin.
My first take -- Biden was exceptionally aggressive. He talked over Ryan a lot. He got slightly more time. Raddatz interrupted Ryan rather a lot. But so it goes. Biden is, for better or worse, a happy warrior.
Ryan was earnest, as always. He did okay, I thought, when he could get a word in edgewise. I don't know if people will find his manner engaging or not.
Benster has a thought:
I think Ryan won. Ryan did a great job explaining his points in a coherent manner. Biden, on the other hand, showed disrespect by smirking and smiling every couple of minutes and Martha Raddatz was doing everything she could to help Biden out. If I'm the Obama campaign, I should be very concerned. Ben out!
I'll watch the spin later. I think it's going to depend on whether or not people thought Biden was a jerk or not.
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