My favorite tweets about the night: "Joe Biden would very much like for Paul Ryan to get off his lawn"- Joe was the barking bull dog of the night.
"While Ryan speaks, Biden looks like he's trying to order a drink at the bar and the bartender is ignoring him."
My overall impression is that Joe Biden has handled foreign policy fairly well in many instances. This is a huge swing in my personal opinion on this topic. On domestic issues I think Ryan came across very clearly that the president does not have a plan for the next four years and has stagnated the economy in the past 4. Here are a few critiques about the Statements made last night.
On Libya: The first question was about the massive security breach in Libya that led to the death of the American ambassador there. Biden's response was to ignore the question and promise to get to the bottom of it (Which by this time they already had). He went on to compare how critical Romney is of the president's "successful" foreign policy. Biden claimed that Ryan voted to cut the militaries budget but what he leaves out is that he also supported to cut the militaries budget. -Biden states that he wasn't told the military wanted more security in Libya. But they already knew there was an Al qaeda cell in Benghazi. According to a CBS interview with the top US security chief in Libya on October the 8th they stated that they had been told by the pentagon to stop asking for support. The interview went like this:
ATTKISSON: Do you feel like there was a disconnect between what you saw on the ground and what the State Dept. folks thought was going on in Libya?
WOOD: There was certainly no disconnect in our transfer of information to them. They were getting the information on the situation on the ground. We sent it up through State Dept. cables and I sent it up to the military side on the D.O.D. side. So, there was awareness of what the situation in Libya was about.
ATTKISSON: How did you get the word that your team would not be allowed to stay?
WOOD: We knew that was coming through the cables and the draft cables that were going back and forth. The requests were being modified to say ‘don’t even request for D.O.D. support’.
ATTKISSON: So State Dept. was telling the folks on the ground in Libya ‘don’t continue to ask for this help’?
WOOD: Correct.
I guess the President had stopped communicating with the D.O.D. ?
On Employment:
Ryan states correctly that job growth is slower each year. That the unemployment rate in Biden's home town went up from 8% to 10%. We are going in the wrong direction. When Ryan spoke about Mitt Romney I teared up. Mitt Romney won't tell the stories about his charitable actions but MITT IS A GOOD MAN. Biden says he has no doubt Romney is committed to individuals, then goes on to say he has no commitment to the auto industry. But wait just a second. Aren't those corporations? I thought the Dems. believed Romney was ONLY for corporations.
on Medicare:
This is where they really got at each other and started interrupting each other non stop.
Ryan stated correctly that Obama is using an accounting gimmick by promising that savings in medicare would be used to extend the life of medicare while at the same time using those same dollars to stabilize Obamacare! Biden completely ignores this even though Ryan brings it up multiple times. He also stated Obama hasn't put a credible plan on the table to save medicare. Ryan states that the foundation of Romney's plan is choice and competition as opposed to medicare becoming a piggybank for Obamacare.
Biden states that Obama cut the cost of medicare by stopping "overpayment" to hospitals. Ryan stated that 1/6 hospitals will go out of business because of these cuts. These are not overspending by hospital, simply support being cut from hospitals for medicare and medicaid. Ryan goes on to state that 7.4 million senior will loose the medicare advantage coverage they have in 2014 based on statements from presidents own actuaries. Romney;s plan would reduce medicare benefits for the rich, a little bit for the better off and not at all for the poor.
Biden during this segment asks if seniors have lost any benefits? However the new law hasn't gone in effect yet and won't until 2014. So how can Biden claim the new program is preventing loss of benefits when it won't be fully implemented until after the election? When it comes to economics and health care, Biden came off strong to a casual observer. But to anyone who knows the facts it was obvious he failed to provide appropriate answers.
To Biden's credit he did show off his knowledge on overseas issues such as Syria and Afghanistan and seemed like a tough yet reasonable kind of guy you want guiding the military.
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