Media reactions to Thursday night's vice-presidential debate were as mixed and ambivalent as the polls, which showed Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan in a dead heat for the winner's circle.
"Mr. Biden's smirking, emotional and aggressively sharp approach toward his rival, Representative Paul D. Ryan, prompted cheers from Democrats who had been desperate for the kind of in-your-face political rumble that President Obama did not deliver during his debate with Mitt Romney a week ago," said Michael D. Shear in The New York Times. Biden was tasked with slowing the Republican presidential candidate's swift rise in the polls.
"But Mr. Biden repeatedly mocked and interrupted Mr. Ryan in ways that led Republicans to use words like "unhinged" and "buffoon" and "disrespectful" in the hours after the fast-paced, 90-minute exchange ended," continued Shear.
Of course partisans sided with their candidate, but impartial referees, judged the debate to be nearly a draw, if a little in Biden's favor.
"If you had to call winner right now, I'd say it's a draw," said David Steinberg, a debate coach and communications professor at the University of Miami. "But a tie goes to the incumbent."
Still, Ryan showed he could hold his own on the national stage.
"He left this debate with little doubt that he'll have some bigger political career going forward if Romney doesn't win the election," said Jamie Chandler, a political science professor at Hunter College.
Plenty of celebrities weighed in on Twitter.
"My conservative friends on Facebook are saying that Martha Raddatz is being "rude." That's how I know Ryan's losing. #debate" tweeted comedian Patton Oswalt.
Comedian and million-dollar Obama donor Bill Maher commented on Biden's relentless attacks on Ryan's assertions. "Hello 9 1 1? There s an old man beating a child on my tv," he tweeted.
"Paul Ryan cannot cope with giving details - he has no facts, but he's also struggling to give any details. #DetailsMatter #FactsMatter," tweeted actress and Democratic activist Eva Longoria.
After an exchange where Ryan's comments on a family involved in a car accident prompted Biden to bring up the death of his first wife and infant daughter in a crash 40 years ago, Saturday Night Live writer Peter Schultz tweeted, "Oh s***. Don't go toe to toe with Joe Biden on car crash stories."
And the most tweeted moment of the debate was Biden's "Now you're Jack Kennedy?" comment to Ryan, after Ryan compared the Republican economic plan to that of the beloved Democratic president.
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