Last Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden and Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan met at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky for the first and only Vice Presidential debate. Martha Raddatz, Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondant for ABC News, was the moderator for the prestigious event.
The debate was separated into 9 different segments with two minutes delegated to each candidate followed by a chance to discuss the topic openly. Many people praised Martha’s moderating skills, such as her ability to ask meaningful questions to further discussions, and not aollowing her candidates to go over their aloted time. The pressure was on Biden to bring it due to the lackluster performance of President Obama in the first Presidential debate.
Throughout the debate, Biden was laughing and smirking at the comments of Ryan, becoming a sensation on twitter. Though some viwed the smirks of Biden were of confidence, others thought he came across as rude to the candidate Ryan. “Ryan was super polite, unlike Biden,” senior Eric Hallman protested. The gawks of Biden were not the only subjects to spark internet fire, searches and tweets for “malarkey” were noticeably high during the debate after Biden coined the term to describe Ryan’s claims against him.
Though many people viewed the debate with importance, many believe the Vice Presidential debate doesn’t matter because the Presidential debates will overshadow their efforts. Some believe nothing changed from the debate as the candidates just reaffirmed their points. David Horn, a senior, said the debate “was a bunch of malarkey.”
