we know you re busy and a lot yet do. good luck winding down from being paul ryan, sir. i will say what you just saw there from congressman chris van hollen if you contrast that with us talking to david plouffe last week after the presidential debate and see the sort of democratic buoyancy out of this, what everybody said going into this was the democrats were looking for something to have changed the momentum, to change the feeling in this race after a presidential race last week that so clearly was a presidential debate last week that was clearly won by mitt romney. democrats have been dejected. i think you see in chris van hollen, and i think in others as we talk to more people in the spin room and ahead in the next hour. that democrats probably feel like they got what they needed tonight. we have lots more ahead including reaction from the obama campaign specifically plus our favorite policy wonk ezra klein on what we heard from both sides tonight. there s a little truth telling
spot regions they did not disagree with. but didn t you think ryan was inept tonight on iranian policy? because he would not admit that the sanctions are doing what they re doing right now. vice president biden clearly pointed out, this is the biggest not exact words, but the biggest stranglehold that they ve been able to put on the iranians and with all of the country ever. around the world and the effect it s having on their economy. he didn t counter that. i mean, he would not admit that we re doing as a world community with the iranians as if it s not happening. he looked really bad, i think on the domestic front he looked bad when he started quoting he had done these bipartisan things with democrats that have turned around and disagreed with him at the end of these things. he quoted people who turned around and said, no, i don t agree with this conclusion. i think that s going to come back and haunt him. biden kept interjecting there. i think the toughest shot th
i knew when he gave him this assignment and said, joe, you re going to carry this flag into battle, he couldn t wait to get prepared for it. he did great. what s interesting, the republicans around here in the so-called spin room, what are they criticizing? oh, he laughed too much. he smiled too much. they want to go after style points because they lost on all the substance points. those of us who know joe biden, this guy wears his heart on his sleeve. he s a guy with big laughs, big tears. that s who he is. senator dick durbin, we thank you for your time tonight. we appreciate it. good to be with you. i want to go to ezra cline now. ezra is our resident wonk. one of the things i wanted to talk to you about was the issue of the unemployment rate. there was this very sharp exchange relatively early on in the debate where paul ryan clearly had sort of a canned line he had prepared to use
tears. that s who he is. senator dick durbin, we thank you for your time tonight. we appreciate it. good to be with you. i want to go to ezra cline now. ezra is our resident wonk. one of the things i wanted to talk to you about was the issue of the unemployment rate. there was this very sharp exchange relatively early on in the debate where paul ryan clearly had sort of a canned line he had prepared to use about scranton, joe biden s hometown, and janesville, wisconsin, his hometown. there was an exchange that seemed to be a factual and policy-based exchange on the unemployment numbers. can we play that right here? joe and i are from similar towns. he s from scranton, pennsylvania. i m from janesville, wisconsin. you know what the unemployment rate in scranton is today? i sure do. 10%. you know what it was when you came in? 8%.
debate site? i think when you read body language, i think you sort of get a better understanding of what happened tonight. democratic spinners, democrats many this general feel enthused, almost relieved. biden brought fight. he brought passion. everything that seemed to be missing from president obama. i think when you watch the body language of republicans and just sort of the spin i m hearing from republicans is, hey, did you look at joe biden laughing? did you look at joe biden doing this? when you re talking about the other opponent in a stylistic matter, you re sort of quietly admitting it s a poker tell. well, don t quite have a good hand to sell subsitively. we know joe biden on points controlled the debate. he put paul ryan on the defensive a lot more. i think you see republicans are trying to push the style thing. i think it shows you they know, look, biden did what he had to do to stop the panic on the