There was no mention of Big Bird in Thursday's Vice Presidential debate, just plenty of smirks from both candidates. There were frank moments, too, like when both Catholic men described their views on abortion. And then there was the inevitable stretching of the truth.
Fact checkers were probably smiling as much as Joe Biden, their pens getting better workouts than Paul Ryan doing P90X.
For obscuring facts, and twisting the truth to make political points, Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan win the Whopper of the Week, a distinction given by the Washington Guardian to the most prominent examples of politicians stretching the truth and misleading voters.
Biden, for his part, reiterated the White House line that the administration was never informed Ambassador Chris Stevens and others were concerned about security at the embassy in Libya, just weeks before the attack that claimed the lives of Stevens and three others.
"We weren't told they wanted more security there," the vice president said during the debate. "We did not know they wanted more security again. And by the way, at the time we were told exactly - we said exactly what the intelligence community told us that they knew. That was the assessment. And as the intelligence community changed their view, we made it clear they changed their view."
But, as the Washington Guardian reported earlier, federal officials had raised plenty of red flags about embassy security before the attacks. The White House announced that it's supporting Biden's statements, even after State Department officials testified to Congress that they had known for a while that security at the embassy wasn't as good as it needed to be.
Ryan, meanwhile, took a number of shots at President Barack Obama, including stating that during the United Nations General Assembly in New York earlier this year, Obama skipped meeting with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in order to go on a talk show instead. Obama did appear on The View, but he and Netanyahu were never in New York at the same time. POLITICO reports that the two later talked by phone.
The congressman and Republican vice presidential nominee also claimed his plans to reform the health system and Medicaid are bipartisan.
"This is a plan that's bipartisan. It's a plan I put together with a prominent Democrat senator from Oregon," he claimed.
Biden jumped on the remark, stating that no Democrats endorsed Ryan's plan. The senator in question is Ron Wyden, who did indeed work with Ryan on healthcare reform, but has since said Ryan is proposing plans that would hurt seniors. Wyden even took to Facebook to call out Ryan following the debate.
"The Wyden-Ryan white paper strengthened the safety net for these dual eligibles. The Romney/Ryan version shreds it. The Republican ticket knows that neither I, nor any other Democrat, would support these policies," Wyden wrote.
The second presidential debate between Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney is Tuesday. It's possible the rhetoric could change - but don't count on it.
