A feisty US Vice-Presidential debate

The United States Vice President Joe Biden came swinging at his Republican opponent Paul Ryan as they clashed over everything from Libya to foreign policy to economy to health care in their high stakes debate on Thursday night.

Unlike President Barack Obama, who admittedly flubbed the first presidential debate against Republican challenger Mitt Romney by being too polite, Biden took an aggressive stance right from the word go in the only vice-presidential debate in Danville, Kentucky.

Biden threw up his arms, laughed, scoffed and rolled his eyes in reaction to Ryan's attacks and often interrupted him as the Republican criticised the Obama Administration. The criticism was for its handling of the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi and accused it of dodging hard questions about the debt crisis.

To Ryan's proposals to reform medicare into a "premium support" or voucher system, the vice president responded in a typical Biden refrain: "Folks, use your common sense: who do you trust on this?"

In the end, it seemed to have worked with analysts proclaiming the encounter a draw though Democrats were hoping that though gaffe prone, a more experienced Biden could put Obama back into the game with a knockout performance.

Republicans too had reason to be pleased. A younger, smarter Ryan, 42, managed to hold his own even on tough foreign policy issues against the vastly more experienced man, 27 years his senior.

Obama and Romney each called their respective running mates on Thursday to offer encouragement before the 90-minute debate focused on domestic issues, national security and foreign policy.

Martha Raddatz of ABC News was the moderator.

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A feisty US Vice-Presidential debate

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