Vice President Biden won tonight’s debate. It was a clash between forthright facts and authentic conviction on one side and glib lines and empty promises on the other. It exposed the extreme risk Romney-Ryan economics pose for American middle class and to our leadership in the world. This debate showed that facts and details matter – and it’s clear tonight that with their total disregard for both, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan know they can’t defend their indefensible plans. On issue after issue, their plans would hurt the middle class.

ICYMI: Videos of key moments:
· Biden: Facts Matter — Our Sanctions Are Crippling Iran  

· Biden: Romney Would Have “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt”    

· Biden: Commitment to a Responsible Transition to Afghan Control

· Ryan: Romney Would Not Increase Defense Spending

· Biden: Who Do You Trust on Medicare?

· Ryan Can’t Reassure Women

· Biden: Ryan Asked For Stimulus Money

CYMI: Key Quotes from tonight:

BIDEN TO RYAN: HOW WILL YOU PREVENT WAR?

RYAN: We want to prevent war.

BIDEN: And the interesting thing is, how are they going to prevent war? How are they going to prevent war if they say there’s nothing more that we — that they say we should do than what we’ve already done, number one.

BIDEN ON FOREIGN POLICY MALARKY:

BIDEN: Let me tell you what the ayatollah sees.

RYAN: You have to have credibility.

BIDEN: The ayatollah sees his economy being crippled. The ayatollah sees that there are 50 percent fewer exports of oil. He sees the currency going into the tank. He sees the economy going into freefall. And he sees the world for the first time totally united in opposition to him getting a nuclear weapon.

Now, with regard to Bibi, who’s been my friend 39 years, the president has met with Bibi a dozen times. He’s spoken to Bibi Netanyahu as much as he’s spoken to anybody. The idea that we’re not — I was in a, just before he went to the U.N., I was in a conference call with the — with the president, with him talking to Bibi for well over an hour, in — in — in stark relief and detail of what was going on.

This is a bunch of stuff. Look, here’s the deal.

RADDATZ: What does that mean, a bunch of stuff?

BIDEN: Well, it means it’s simply inaccurate.

RYAN: It’s Irish.

BIDEN: It — it is.

(LAUGHTER)

We Irish call it malarkey.

BIDEN: FACTS MATTER::

BIDEN: Oh, I didn’t say — no, I’m not saying that. But facts matter, Martha. You’re a foreign policy expert. Facts matter. All this loose talk about them, “All they have to do is get to enrich uranium in a certain amount and they have a weapon,” not true. Not true.

BIDEN ON 47 PERCENT:

BIDEN: I’ve had it up to here with this notion that 47 percent — it’s about time they take some responsibility here. And instead of signing pledges to Grover Norquist not to ask the wealthiest among us to contribute to bring back the middle class, they should be signing a pledge saying to the middle class we’re going to level the playing field; we’re going to give you a fair shot again; we are going to not repeat the mistakes we made in the past by having a different set of rules for Wall Street and Main Street, making sure that we continue to hemorrhage these tax cuts for the super wealthy.

BIDEN:They’re pushing the continuation of a tax cut that will give an additional $500 billion in tax cuts to 120,000 families. And they’re holding hostage the middle class tax cut because they say we won’t pass — we won’t continue the middle class tax cut unless you give the tax cut for the super wealthy.

It’s about time they take some responsibility.

BIDEN ON THE ECONOMY:

BIDEN: When I was a little younger than the Congressman, my wife was in an accident, killed my daughter and my wife, and my two sons survived. I have sat in the homes of many people that have gone through what I’ve get through because the one thing you can give people solace is to know if they know you’ve been through it that they can make it. So I don’t doubt his personal commitment to individuals. But you know what? I know he had no commitment to the automobile industry. He just let — he said let to it go bankrupt, period. Let it drop out.

All this talk, we saved a million jobs. 200,000 people are working today, and I’ve never met two guys who are more down on America across the board. We’re told everything’s going bad. There are 5.2 million new jobs, private sector jobs. We need more but 5.2 million, but if they would get out of the way, if they’d get out of the way and let us pass the tax cut for the middle class, make it permanent. If they’d get out of the way and pass the jobs bill. If they’d get out of the way and let us allow 14 million people who are struggling to stay in their homes because their mortgages are upside down but they never missed a mortgage payment, just get out of the way. Stop talking about how you care about people. Show me something. Show me a policy. Show me a policy where you take responsibility.

BIDEN ON MEDICARE:

BIDEN: These — look, these guys haven’t been big on Medicare from the beginning. Their party’s not been big on Medicare from the beginning. And they’ve always been about Social Security as little as you can do.

Look, folks, use your common sense. Who do you trust on this — a man who introduced a bill that would raise it 40 — $6,400 a year; knowing it and passing it, and Romney saying he’d sign it, or me and the president?

BIDEN AND RYAN ON ABORTION:

RADDATZ: I want to go back to the abortion question here. If the Romney-Ryan ticket is elected, should those who believe that abortion should remain legal be worried?

RYAN: We don’t think that unelected judges should make this decision; that people through their elected representatives in reaching a consensus in society through the democratic process should make this determination.

BIDEN: The court — the next president will get one or two Supreme Court nominees. That’s how close Roe v. Wade is. Just ask yourself, with Robert Bork being the chief adviser on the court for — for Mr. Romney, who do you think he’s likely to appoint? Do you think he’s likely to appoint someone like Scalia or someone else on the court far right that would outlaw (inaudible) — outlaw abortion? I suspect that would happen.

BIDEN ON PROTECTING OUR MILITARY:

RADDATZ: What would you say to that American hero about this campaign? And at the end of the day, are you ever embarrassed by the tone?

Vice President Biden?

BIDEN: I would say to him the same thing I say to my son who did serve a year in Iraq, that we only have one truly sacred obligation as a government. That’s to equip those we send into harm’s way and care for those who come home. That’s the only sacred obligation we have. Everything else falls behind that.

YOU DID US ALL PROUD VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN. THANK YOU!

One of my favorite KILLA lines of the night:

“It’s about time they take some responsibility here. Instead of signing pledges to Grover Norquist not to ask the wealthiest among us to contribute to bring back the middle class, they should be signing a pledge saying to the middle class we’re going to level the playing field; we’re going to give you a fair shot again; we are going to not repeat the mistakes we made in the past by having a different set of rules for Wall Street and Main Street, making sure that we continue to hemorrhage these tax cuts for the super wealthy.”