Last night’s VP debate saw Joe Biden (current VP) and Republican congressman Paul Ryan spar over issues like medicare, taxes, and national security while moderated by ABC’s Martha Raddatz. This often overlooked debate (given voters cannot actually vote for a VP candidate)  saw Raddatz calmly, but firmly, handle the two candidates as they battled for voter support. Unlike the Obama and Romney debate we saw a week ago, the Democrats looked stronger than ever as Biden spent the majority of the 90 minutes effectively comparing the two party’s competing visions for the future; something Obama failed to do. Biden also brought up the contentious 47% controversy and Romney’s current tax rate, which were both deliberately omitted from Obama’s debate. But with all the aggression Biden did bring to the table, his grinning, sighing and interjections were read by many political commentators as condescending and disrespectful. Unlike Biden, the 42 year old congressman’s body language was calm, but thirsty, taking numerous sips of water throughout the event. Having to be on the defense for a lot of the night, Ryan stayed firm on issues like abortion and foreign policy and came across as a strong opponent against the heavily experienced Biden. Many people weighed in on the debate last night, including filmmaker Micheal Moore who tweeted this about the debate: “BREAKING: Post debate results just in… Ryan now at 6% body fat, 94% water.” In the social media world, there were 3.7 million tweets during the debate, down 7 million from last week, and hashtags like “malarky” and “laughing” became US trending topics, which were clearly referencing Biden’s performance.

Catch the next debate for this election next week, when Obama and Romney square off on foreign policy issues in New York on Tuesday, October 16th.
If you missed any of the debate you can watch the full video here. BeTrenders, we gotta know, what did you guys think about the debate?