2012 Presidential Election, Vice Presidential Debate | featured news

Paul Ryan debating Joe Biden wasn't quite the same television draw as Sarah Palin versus Biden was four years ago. An estimated 51.4 million people watched Ryan, the Republican challenger, debate Vice President Biden, a Democrat, on Thursday night, said Nielsen, the company that measures television audiences.

Vice President Joe Biden came out on top of Thursday night’s vice presidential debate with Republican challenger Paul Ryan, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The energetic Biden claimed a seven-point victory – 42 percent to 35 percent – among registered voters, with a similar margin among independents. Nearly a quarter of registered voters and about a third of independents were unsure who did a better job during the debate at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.

The White House is defending Vice President Biden over his debate statement that "we weren't told" about requests for more security at a U.S. Consulate in Libya before the Sept. 11 attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others.

No surprise here: Joe Biden versus Paul Ryan isn't as popular as Joe Biden versus Sarah Palin. Preliminary ratings for Thursday's vice presidential debate showed that about 43 million people tuned in to watch the coverage across six networks -- ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, MSNBC and CNN. (The numbers will be updated later to include viewing figures from other networks such as PBS and Fox Business Network.)

Vice President Joe Biden has mangled a heaping helping of facts over the years. Despite being newer to presidential campaign politics, Republican Rep. Paul Ryan has already earned something of a reputation for taking flying leaps past reality.

The complete transcript of the 2012 vice presidential debate from Danville, Ky.

Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan's 90-plus minute debate Thursday reflected the job they seek -- important but not critical, more like a first-round playoff game than the Super Bowl.

Fifty percent of uncommitted voters polled after watching the vice presidential debate picked Joe Biden as the winner while 31 percent thought Rep. Paul Ryan won. Anthony Mason reports.

At odds in an instant, Republican Paul Ryan cited the death of the U.S. ambassador in Libya as evidence Thursday night that the administration's foreign policy is unraveling. Vice President Joe Biden shot back in campaign debate, “That is a bunch of malarkey.”