Tonight is the vice presidential debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan. One can expect a robust debate strategy between the two candidates. Biden, having experience at the vice presidential debate in 2008 against Governor Sarah Palin, is expected to come out strong against Ryan, for whom this is the first time on this stage.
VP Debate 2012: A Guide to Where and When to Watch Online
According to the Obama Campaign:
"The vice president [Biden] will speak directly to the American people about the progress we've made over the past four years and a concrete Obama-Biden plan to continue creating an economy that works for the middle class. And Joe Biden, as he always does, will speak the truth," said Jim Messina, Obama campaign manager.
"The question now is whether Congressman Ryan will adopt the same dishonest strategy or if he'll stand by the very extreme positions he's taken as the intellectual leaders of the Republican Party -- positions like vouchers on Medicare, his extreme budget that cuts the deficit on the back of the middle class and the poor, whether he wants to redefine rape as he proposed in Congress," Messina added. "The question now is whether he'll continue those same policies or whether he'll try to gray them over as Romney is trying."
"Unfortunately, as we've already seen, in everything from his fact-free convention speech to his exaggerated marathon time, Ryan isn't afraid to skirt the truth. That's what we expect to see tonight."
According to Congressman Ryan:
"Because they had such a bad debate, Joe Biden is just going to come flying at us," Ryan said. "It seems pretty clear that their new strategy is just basically to call us liars, to descend down into a mud pit, and hopefully with enough mudslinging back and forth-and distortion-people get demoralized and they can win by default."
In an exclusive interview with CNN, Ryan said "This stage is kind of new for me and I'm taking it very seriously," he replied. "I'm just doing my homework and studying the issues and I'll know he'll come and attack us. The problem he has is he has Barack Obama's record to run on."
A Republican source said that Ted Olson, former solicitor general, has been practicing with Ryan on the road. Ryan has also participated in half a dozen or more formal mock debates at 90-minute lengths to resemble the real vice presidential debate.
