Danville, Kentucky:
Vice President Joe Biden and rival Republican Paul Ryan clashed sharply over foreign policy in a high-stakes debate on Thursday, with Mr Biden aggressively defending the Obama administration's policies and dismissing Paul Ryan's criticism as "malarkey."
Mr Biden took the offensive early, providing the emotion and passion that President Barack Obama was criticised for lacking in last week's debate with Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
Mr Ryan accused the Obama administration of projecting an image of American weakness to the world.
"With all due respect, that is a bunch of malarkey," Mr Biden retorted, attacking Mr Romney as "not Presidential" for holding a news conference on Libya just after a U.S. diplomatic compound was attacked and the ambassador killed.
Democrats were counting on an aggressive performance from Mr Biden to reclaim the momentum in the race for the White House after Mr Obama's poor showing led to Mr Romney taking the lead in polls with less than four weeks before the November 6 election.
Mr Ryan said the Obama administration had given confusing information about the killing last month of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.
"It took the President two weeks to acknowledge that this was a terrorist attack," the Wisconsin congressman said.
Mr Biden vowed the administration would find the perpetrators of the attack and rectify mistakes in security at the diplomatic mission in Benghazi.
The two candidates sat across from each other at a table but the proximity did not lessen the conflict, as both candidates aggressively went after each other.
Smirking, interruptionsThe atmosphere was tense.
Mr Biden interrupted his opponent frequently and laughed at many of Mr Ryan's answers, while the Republican smirked as Mr Biden spoke.
Mr Ryan defended Mitt Romney's secretly recorded video condemning the "47 percent" of the electorate that he said was dependent on government and considered themselves victims, calling it a mistake.
He said the gaffe-prone Mr Biden should understand that "sometimes the words don't always come out the right way."
Mr Biden smiled but shot back: "I always say what I mean."
The 42-year-old Mr Ryan, a seven-term congressman and chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, is popular with conservatives for a budget plan that would slash government spending and creating a "voucher" system for the popular Medicare healthcare program for seniors. Democrats say it would leave some retirees paying more of their medical costs.
"We will not be part of any voucher plan, or the privatization of Social Security," Mr Biden said.
Mr Biden, 69, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations and Judiciary committees, clearly was ready to point out the lack of international experience on the Romney-Ryan ticket.
Mr Obama set an aggressive tone before the Biden-Ryan debate, accusing Mr Romney of shifting toward the political center despite touting conservative credentials during the long Republican nomination contest.
Mr Biden was a strong performer in the Democratic primary debates during his failed 2008 run for the White House and fared well against Republican Sarah Palin in that year's vice presidential debate.
But he also has a reputation for gaffes, including a recent remark that the middle class has been "buried for the last four years" - almost the span of Mr Obama's presidency - by a bad economy.
© Thomson Reuters 2012