Who won the debate, Vice President Biden or Paul Ryan?

Biden. He was an asshole along the way, but he took the offensive while mostly sticking to truths. I don’t really care who won, though; PolitiFact seems like a better source for telling me who I should vote for.

Theoretically, of course, since my 18th birthday is Nov. 16th. Damn.

Biden won legitimately. It wasn’t just a matter of style. Ryan was exposed as the vacuous fraud that he is.

Personally, I don’t find it useful to think about these things in terms of winning or losing. This is presidential politics, not high school debate club. Without a panel of judges giving out points and a show of hands from the audience, there can be no winner of a debate. The only thing it makes sense to talk about is the arguments presented and the effects that the debate might have on the electorate.

I think the same holds true of any argument held outside the purview of some sort of official competition or tournament. People love to talk about winning and losing arguments, but there really is no such thing in the absence of some formalized scoring system.

If reading around the Internet is any indication, the Democrats say Biden won, and the Republicans say Ryan won. So it depends on your affiliation and/or perspective. I’m pretty sure “debate” is a misnomer here; they should really call them “pep rallies that fire up the base.”

Biden was the clear winner. When even Fox admits the truth, it’s all over but the crying. Rush Limbaugh is already whining about how Martha Raddatz threw the thing to Biden. When the far right is crying about how unfair they were treated, that’s a clear sign they got their self-righteous ass kicked. When they are able to lie all the way through the debate without getting called out on it—as in Romeny’s case—that’s what the far right calls fair and balanced. This debate wasn’t fair and balanced. It was a rout. And Ryan was for dinner.

After watching it, Biden won.

Biden clearly trounced Ryan.
For the folks who complain about Biden interrupting Ryan, it was only because of Ryan constant stream of misrepresentations. Right out of the box he protested the scheduled 700B$ cut to the defense budget due to sequestration – this was not Obama/Biden’s idea, it came out of the House Finance committee of which Ryan is the chairperson.

For the folks complaining about the moderator, you’re right she should have controlled the procedings more, but to step in to pin Ryan even more down on his blatant misrepresentations.

It was entertaining to see how much Ryan squirmed when confronted with his abortion policy. As a Catholic or otherwise there was no escaping that he has all along said the government needs to outlaw abortion and if given the chance he would do it.

It was also comical to see Ryan say, when asked how would he pay for the 5T$ tax cuts, that he would seek a bi-partisan solution to that. He could not give any specifics because he has none. And for Ryan to advocate bi-partisan solutions when he’s been at the forefront of the dig-our-heels-in-don’t-budge-‘on-principle’ Republican’t stonewalling is pure chutzpah of the worst kind.

Ryan won hands down. Biden was exposed for the idiot he is.

Well it really depends. In my view Biden won because he was steady, aggressive and when talking about foreign affairs he also sounded reasonable. Ryan sounded too eager to go to war. I think he showed how diplomatic he won’t be. Vice Presidents are next in line if something should happen to the President. I don’t want a paranoid VP in the office.
In my opinion Biden was vague about what the next 4 years will entail and Ryan’s plans or lack of plans for future diplomatic endeavors has me really worried along with this idea of cutting taxes across the board and yet have us believe they can do that and it have no adverse effects. You simply don’t get something for nothing. That is not how the world works. Plus how are they going to give the military 2 trillion dollars when we are so far in debt? Sounds like promises made to military contract companies who probably backed their campaign.

@Roby, can you be more specific? In what ways do you think Biden came off as idiotic?

I’ll be specific: Ryan supplied no details about his tax plan when repeatedly pressed, let alone how such a plan is even mathematically possible. Ryan is the GOP’s “wonk,” their “numbers guy”—you’d think he’d at least be able to offer an outline.

He lied through his teeth about his “bipartisan” Medicare reform, which of course.

He spoke out of both sides of his mouth about foreign policy—criticizing the adminstration for not being “strong” about Libya, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan while refusing to specify a single thing Romney/Ryan would have done differently.

And of course he’s a hypocrite, criticizing Obama for the lack of consulate security when he voted against security funding; criticizing Obama for the ~$700 billion cuts to Medicare providers when he voted for those cuts in his budget plan, criticizing Obama for lack of bipartisanship when he voted against Simpson-Bowles, when he failed to secure a single Dem vote for any of his proposals, and when he led the GOP’s blatant obstructionism for four years.

None of these facts are new, but I think the debate made them much more apparent. Now let’s hear why you think Biden lost.

@Qingu Just wondering why you aren’t asking @ragingloli to be more specific. @Roby isn’t the only person here who didn’t give specifics to their answer. Hell, even you didn’t with your first answer. (and I love how you always play teacher and demand others give a more detailed answer, as if we have nothing better to do than answer to you~)

I didn’t watch the entire debate, but I agree with @laureth. The Democrats seem to be pleased with Biden and the Republicans seem to be please with Ryan’s performance. Most articles I have read said the debate was a tie, with the win going to the incumbent.

@jonsblond I often ask people to support beliefs that I find to be wrong. I know this offends your “above the fray” sensibilities, but some of us feel that debate is important.

@Qingu

He lied through his teeth about his “bipartisan” Medicare reform, which of course.

Perhaps by “bipartisan” Lyan meant the GOP and the Tea Party, and as George Costanza has said, “It’s not a lie if you believe it.” ;-)

Biden. He schooled Ryan.

@Qingu Is it really that difficult for you to admit that Biden is known for his gaffes and can come across as an idiot at times? I like the man. I would have voted for him in the primaries if I didn’t have the option to vote for Hillary Clinton. I think Biden is more experienced for the position than Obama is, but Biden is a loose cannon. His own party admits this. You can’t deny it. (I would like to add that Jason Sudeikis has me almost peeing in my pants with laughter whenever he plays Biden on SNL). But that’s enough about Biden. Don’t worry. I’m not “above the fray”, so you haven’t offended me. I just get a little irritated with elitism. I think elitists are close-minded and that’s something that is difficult for me to ignore. I’ve witnessed many debates on this site with individuals who are respectful. Maybe I should find the threads and show them to you so you could learn from the best. It couldn’t hurt. ;)

@jonsblond I’ll let @Qingu fight his own battles, but dang, it’s hard not to jump into the middle of that.

I will allow that Biden’s lectures were not the thing that threw the debate to him. His honest smirking and giggling at Ryan’s outrageous lies did Ryan in IMNSHO. But whatever it was, Ryan was on the menu. He got eaten alive.

@ETpro I admitted I didn’t watch the entire debate. I only watched bits and pieces. The only people I hear saying Ryan lost are members of Fluther. The media made it out to be a tie, with Biden winning as incumbent.

@jonsblond I watched, and Biden won decisively. That said by someone who scored the 1st Presidential Debate a clear win for Romney.

I haven’t watched it, except for the highlights. What if it were Ryan doing the “that is a bunch of malarky”, and interrrupting, smirking, laughing, thing?

@flo I think it would have to do a lot with whether or not Vice-President Biden were in fact spouting malarky. You could maybe disagree with some of his policy but he did not make facts up. If Biden had been misrepresenting facts I’d be ragging on him here.

To anyone who’s followed the facts of current news and the claims of the campaigns, Ryan clearly was constantly misrepresenting things – even his own campaign policies and prior votes in congress, and, IMO, deserved much worse than smirks and interruptions.

@dabbler The people who know what is what may not be influenced by it, it is not about them. Most people are influenced by that kind of thing. The wrong person can do that and look like he/she has the substance, i.e their side should be voted for.