Sunday, October 14, 2012

Ryan-Biden debate a spirited bout in which each man showed his mettle

KONRAD YAKABUSKI
MADISON, Wisconsin — The Globe and Mail
Published
Last updated


In the first debate since the Democratic ticket lost its months-long lead in the polls, a combative Vice-President Joe Biden sought to regain ground by unleashing a blistering string of attacks on Republican plans to sap the social safety net and curtail access to abortion.

The target of those salvos, Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan, calmly endeavoured to allay the concerns regarding GOP policies on Medicare, taxes and reproductive rights, while accusing the Obama administration of a series of foreign-policy blunders.


Though they displayed sharply contrasting styles and energy levels – Mr. Biden, 69, projected a fervent blue-collar folksiness, while a businesslike Mr. Ryan, 42, was small-town friendly – the candidates largely duelled to a draw. In a snap CNN poll, 48 per cent of debate watchers declared Mr. Ryan the winner while 44 per cent picked Mr. Biden.

While Mr. Biden chuckled condescendingly at his rival throughout, drawing criticism from many observers, his passionate defence of egalitarian principles succeeded in rekindling the fervour of Democrats demoralized by President Barack Obama’s listless performance in last week’s presidential debate. But if Mr. Biden dominated the discussion, Mr. Ryan was seen as offering the most specifics on policy.

“I have never met two guys who are more down on America across the board. We’re told everything is going bad,” Mr. Biden said of Mr. Ryan and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, accusing the duo of spreading doom about economy and “malarkey” about Mr. Obama’s handling of foreign policy. “Their ideas are old, and their ideas are bad, and they eliminate the guarantee of Medicare.”
Mr. Ryan, pointing out that the proposed Republican changes to Medicare would not affect Americans over 55, countered: “This is what politicians do when they don’t have a record to run on: try to scare people from voting for you.”

As the architect of a radical plan to shrink the federal government and turn over programs to the states or private sector, Mr. Ryan tried to reassure centrist voters that a Romney-Ryan administration would not abandon the poor, sick or elderly.

“If you reform these programs for my generation, people 54 and below, you can guarantee they don’t change for people in or near retirement, which is precisely what Mitt Romney and I are proposing,” he said.
Mr. Ryan aimed to show he possesses the gravitas of a prospective vice-president, a task complicated perhaps by Time magazine’s Thursday posting of year-old photos of the freakishly fit congressman, baseball cap on backward, showing off his biceps.

Mr. Ryan also sought to dispel doubts about his grasp of foreign policy, challenging Mr. Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on the Obama administration’s handling of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya, Iran’s nuclear program, the drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and the civil uprising in Syria.

Indeed, Mr. Ryan held out the prospect of keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond the Obama administration’s stated timetable for withdrawing by the end of 2014.

Moderator Martha Raddatz, a senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC News, split the debate equally between domestic and foreign policy. The candidates were seated at a table, facing Ms. Raddatz, rather than standing at podiums.

The spirited 90-minute debate pitted a grizzled Democratic veteran of Washington politics who has not ruled out running for President in 2016 against the GOP young gun thought likely to seek the White House in four years if his ticket loses next month.

Mr. Ryan defended Mr. Romney in the wake of his comment, secretly captured on videotape at a May fundraiser, in which he disparaged 47 per cent of the electorate as dependent on government handouts. Speaking to Mr. Biden’s own penchants for gaffes, Mr. Ryan said: “With respect to that quote, I think the Vice-President very well knows that sometimes the words don’t come out of your mouth the right way.”
Mr. Biden shot back: “If you heard that little soliloquy on 47 per cent, and you think he just made a mistake, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.”

The abortion question sprung up near the end of the debate as Mr. Ryan, a staunch opponent of abortion in all circumstances, promised that a Romney administration would allow for the procedure in cases of rape, incest and where the life of the mother is endangered. But while Mr. Romney has said he favours a Supreme Court ruling that overturns the 1973 court decision establishing abortion rights, Mr. Ryan appeared to contradict that position.

“We don’t think that unelected judges should make this decision. [We believe] that people, through their elected representatives and reaching a consensus in society through the democratic process, should make this determination,” Mr. Ryan said.
Mr. Biden warned, however, that Mr. Romney would appoint right-wing judges who would roll back abortion rights.

While vice-presidential debates have rarely been consequential, Thursday’s encounter in Danville, Ken., drew particular attention with Mr. Romney moving ahead of Mr. Obama in national polls for the first time. The Real Clear Politics average of polls taken since the Oct. 3 presidential debate showed Mr. Romney with a 0.7 percentage point advance among likely voters. Before that debate, Mr. Obama led by about five percentage points.

         



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