Ron Paul Supporter Says Biden Won the Vice Presidential Debate Last Night

Impact

Vice presidential debate streaming live: Watch Biden vs Ryan Debate

On Thursday, October 11rd, Vice President Biden and Congressman Ryan will hold their only debate from 9:00-10:30 pm EST in Danville, Kentucky.

With former Governor Mitt Romney almost unanimously perceived as the winner of the first presidential debate between him and President Obama, it will be up to Biden to stop the bleeding for now. From my libertarian perspective, I will be focusing on the debate from a non-partisan stance with little enthusiasm for either candidate but a keen interest on how they portray themselves to the American public.

Although the vice president has very little constitutional authority, he is seen as an ally of the president who helps guide and inform his decisions. Biden is prone to gaffes and putting his foot in his mouth, so he will likely be calm, calculated, and safe while portraying Ryan as an extreme budget hawk. Ryan will undoubtedly attempt to accept that portrayal as a fiscal conservative who will be a partner with Romney to offer the American people a supposed clear choice. Like Obama and Romney, they will likely paint themselves with opposing brushes despite their nearly identical voting records.

I will be giving live updates, tweets, pics, and anything I find relevant and amusing as I try to expose and vent both Ryan and Biden.

I will also be liveblogging the last two presidential debates on October 16th and 22nd. So stay tuned!

PolicyMic will be covering the presidential debate live. For live updates, bookmark and refresh this page.

Here is the debate live stream:

SUMMARY: WHO WON THE DEBATE?

It's hard to pick a "winner" when Democrats and Republicans debate, but Vice President Biden looked much more mature and responsible than I expected him to be while Congressman Paul Ryan looked annoyed and uncomfortable.

Every time Ryan spoke, I couldn't help but think Ryan must live in a bubble of conservative talk radio and/or FOX News talking points. I would know; I spend most of my day at work listening to the radio, flipping back and forth, and Ryan literally sounded like Hannity and Levin on almost every issue.

When it came to foreign policy (in my opinion, the most pressing issue), Ryan sounded reckless, bloodthirsty, and borderline psychopathic in his desire to drop more bombs and more missiles on third-world countries. He spewed the lies behind the Iran war propaganda and criticized Obama-Biden for being "weak" on foreign policy. Talking points, talking points, talking points.

Biden, to his credit, dismissed Ryan and slapped him around on foreign policy. And that's saying something, because Biden is also pretty horrible on foreign policy. But Biden actually sounded like the adult in the room. While Ryan was promoting an even bigger empire with baseless talking points, Biden sounded rational (at least compared to Ryan). Perhaps it's because he's been serving under Obama for the last few years and knows more than most about these issues or because Ryan and the neocon Republicans are just that bad on foreign policy. It's probably a little bit of both.

On economics and domestic issues, Biden and Ryan were bickering back and forth about false caricatures of each other, accusing one another of things that will undoubtedly fire up their base. "See, our guy is better - and different!"

Predictably, there was no mention of the Federal Reserve, monetary policy, the NDAA, the creeping police state, assassination of U.S. citizens, extension of the PATRIOT Act, etc. The reality is, of course, that they both agree on all of these issues (in the favor of more state power and less individual liberty).

The winner: Biden. By default. Ryan truly is a monster, who sounded unprepared and nervous. Biden had no gaffes and sounded reasonable by comparison. The real winner, of course, is the establishment status quo, central banking, empire, and fiat money. The American people, and anyone who values individual liberty, peace, and a free economy, lose.

10:25 PM Ryan completely dodges the question posed about whether or not abortion rights are safe or not. Biden comes out guns blazing, and is lying of course. Every four years, conservatives rally their base by accusing liberals of wanting to subsidize abortions, and liberals accuse right-wingers of wanting to strip women of all of their rights. Both sides are WRONG.

10:18 PM Biden does not want to "impose his values" on the rest of us. Fine. How about not imposing debt, war, inflation, and forced transfers of wealth on those, like me, who disagree?

10:15 PM For the last 70 minutes, Ryan has been urging death and destruction on the rest of the globe and criticizing the President for not piling up enough bodies overseas. Now, he is down to a whisper, as he massages his conservative base on the abortion issue with talking points about Obamacare's attack on "religious liberty."

Hey Ryan, I got a religious, spiritual, ethical, and moral opposition to the American Empire and everything the U.S. government does that violates the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Are my First Amendment rights being violated?

10:13 PM Jeez, Ryan is absolutely awful on foreign policy. I knew he was horrible, but my jaw has dropped countless times on the lies and ignorance Ryan is displaying. Trying to portrary Obama-Biden as soft or weak will destroy the Romney-Ryan campaign.

10:09 PM Ben Swann has a great question:

10:06 PM Hey Biden, I'm sure you know that Obama was given a report urging that his "surge" would be a failure, be expensive, and just end up with a ton of body bags and that Obama ignored it and sent in the troops anyway?

10:03 PM And all this talk about Afghans shooting "our boys" and the Taliban "waiting us out." What about the thousands of innocent Afghan civilians being killed by the war? The billions flushed down the toilet? The suicide of soldiers?

This Afghan war discussion is making me want to pull my (admittedly short) hair out. Ryan and Biden are bickering back and forth, both accepting the premise that the U.S. has the right to send its troops anywhere and everywhere for every reason.

10:00 PM This pretty much sums it up:

9:57 PM Biden wants more Special Forces, and more drones. Leaner? Perhaps. But empire is empire, Biden, whether or not it's done by Marines or by drone operators in Nevada.

A 1.2 Theftrillion dollar military budget is "weak," according to Ryan. I can not wrap my head around the logic of Ryan and those who think the military is somehow being "gutted" by Obama-Biden.

Ryan looks annoyed and testy.

9:52 PM Roger Stone weighs in:

9:50 PM Ryan: broaden the tax base? So you want MORE people paying taxes?

Cut taxes across the board, and close loopholes? He says they won't increase the deficit. But Romney wants to increase the military budget by trillions. How do you balance a budget by cutting taxes and increasing spending? I'm all for cutting taxes, but unless you cut spending, they are meaningless.

9:45 PM Sigh...all this mention of Medicare, Social Security and their rising costs with NO MENTION of the Federal Reserve and the role monetary policy and central banking plays on the destruction of the dollar.

9:44 PM One of the best journalists in America, Jeremy Scahill, tweets:

And great responses to Scahill:

9:41 PM Privatize Social Security and Medicare? If only!

9:38 PM And by the way Biden, citing the AMA and the AARP does not boost your credibility or enhance your argument. That's like saying: "Hey, Lockheed Martin and Boeing say my defense budget works!"

Now Biden is doing what the Democrats always do: scaremonger about what Republicans taking away granny's health care! Vouchers! His form of socialism/corporatism is worse than my version!

9:36 PM I was interested to see how Ryan would handle the Social Security/Medicare discussion, and he is moving quickly to the center and changing the subject to Obamacare. Fundamentally, Ryan believes in the idea behind government wealth transfer programs, he just wants to tinker a bit with it. This is what Republicans always do: scaremonger about Social Security being bankrupt, get elected, then expand these programs and calling it "choice" and "competition."

9:34 PM Boy, Ryan sure does look nervous while Biden talks about him begging for stimulus money to Wisconsin.

9:32 PM Hey Biden, do you really think Romney would not have bailed out GM?

9:27 PM While I despise Romney, Ryan's anecdotes about his private life and charity show that Romney is probably a decent guy. He's still a fascist warmonger though of course.

Ryan hitting hard on economic, growth numbers, as he should be.

But notice how Ryan (and other Republicans) always say they'll do stuff "by the end of the decade." Ya, sure, Ryan.

9:24 PM Great tweet haha

9:22 PM Ryan: Trigger a nuclear arms race. LIE! Israel has over 200 nukes, including hydrogen bombs. Why hasn't there been a nuclear arms race because of Israel's "nuclear ambiguity?"

"All options are on the table," says Ryan. In other words, Ryan says he would be willing to nuke Tehran????

9:21 PM Biden!!!! He points out that Iran's economy and currency has been tanking in the last few years, and that they're exports are suffering. This is why I hate conservatives and Republicans: they make Biden, who has voted for nearly every war the U.S. has fought since he's been in politics, look sane.

Ryan literally has NO IDEA what he is talking about concerning Iran and "the Ayatollahs" and criticizes Obama for not meeting with Bibi. Talking points galore.

9:18 PM Is Biden actually sounding rational on the Iranian nuclear issue? Next to the warmongering Ryan, he actually sounds reasonable.

Ryan: Romney will kill more Persians than Obama!

My goodness, one can almost see the blood falling from Ryan's lips as he talks about the NON-EXISTENT Iranian nuclear weapons program. For the last decade at least, Iran has been "on the brink of having nukes."

9:13 PM Biden takes the bait, and falls in line. Thanks to Ryan's attack on them for being "weak," Biden is forced to puff his chest and brag about the Persians that his boss's "crippling, tough" sanctions are starving and denying medicine too. Big, tough guy.

9:10 PM Ryan: Peace. Democracy. Liberty. Blah, blah, blah. Defense cuts? Come on Ryan, there are not "cuts" and very little defense in the Pentagon budget.

9:09 PM  "Projecting weakness abroad," says Ryan. What about drones and new wars is "weak?"

Ryan comes out strong with talking points, bringing up Obama's "blaming" the YouTube video for the Libya uprisings. Wait a second...Ryan is criticizing Biden for not negotiating well?

9:06 PM Biden's first lies: Obama ended the Iraq war and will end the Afghan war in 2014.

9:02PM "One of the most significant vice-presidential debates in history," says Diane Sawyer. I swear they say the same thing about every election!

PRE-DEBATE NEWS:

8:56PM THE THREE STOOGES: Romney, Huckabee, and Boehner wishing Ryan "good luck" by speakerphone. How cute... (Via BusinessInsider)

8:44PM I can't resist posting another Onion story. Biden's "lucky debate suit."

8:42PM Oh, Ann...

8:37PM Where is this generation's Will Rogers?

8:32PM Philosoraptor wants to know...

8:30 PM Let Johnson debate! The great Judge Andrew Napolitano makes the case that the presidential debates are not worth it unless Governor Gary Johnson is allowed to participate. Or in this case, Judge Jim Gray, Johnson's running mate. Here's Napolitano:

"The debates are crafted by the folks who run the Romney and Obama campaigns. Romney is afraid of Johnson because he might take the votes of those who are tired of unconstitutional government and deficits and war. Obama is afraid of Johnson because he might take the votes of those who are appalled at the government’s murderous drug wars and its assaults on personal freedom and who also are tired of war. Both sides fear Johnson because he is essentially fearless when it comes to his belief that the Constitution means what it says – meaning if it does not authorize the feds to regulate health care, fight undeclared wars or mortgage the future, then they simply cannot do it. But the powers that run the means by which we elect presidents have decided that they can ill-afford a frontal assault on the big government they have created, on national television much less, and four weeks before a presidential election. You see, without Johnson in these debates, the argument will remain how much the feds should regulate, rather than whether they should do so."

8:24 PM The keys to the Vice Presidential debate, as only The Onion can tell it:

Ryan to assure independent voters he won’t have any say on policy matters if elected Biden to get dressed up, tie and everything As closing statements approach, Ryan must keep his urge for a Muscle Milk in check Biden to wear actual American flag, pinned to chest Ryan to offer to explain his tax plan, look around, and then say what a shame it is that there’s no chalkboard he could use Biden to take every opportunity to remind voters he travels by choo-choo train Ryan to smile through his answers like a piece of s**t Regardless of party affiliation, each nominee must do exact opposite of what Obama did