there was a bit of an exchange here tonight that made it unclear what the facts were. i want to play the exchange and get your take on who was right here. go ahead. medicare and social security did so much for my own family, we are not going to jeopardize this program, but we have to save it. you are jeopardizing the program. you re changing the program from a guaranteed benefit to a premium support, whatever you call it. the bottom line is people are going to have to pay more money out of their pocket, and the families i know and the families i come from, they don t have the money to pay more out of their pocket. they re talking about medicare there. in terms of social security, at some point, martha said, you stood with bush on privatization, saying that to paul ryan, specifically talking about when he was in the congress during the bush administration back in the mid-2000s. it isn t just that paul ryan stood with bush on privatization. he stood well to the right on privatiza
what did you think of biden in contrast? joe biden made up a lot of ground in that territory tonight. i mean, i have a sense the liberal community is going to be very satisfied with what joe biden delivered tonight. he was detailed. he was passionate. he made people believe that he cares about the country and had confidence in which way this administration wants to take the country. he talked about the progress that has been made and talked about the tough decisions that had to be made and the decisions that were made were the correct decisions. i think that s what the base wanted to hear tonight. and they got it from joe biden. now, as far as ryan is concerned, look, i don t think it s going to take very long for them to start crying about the referee here. i thank that her reporting skills came out tonight. she improvised a great zedeal o the subject matter. i think that going to be criticized in the right wing media. ryan, mission accomplished. he went there tonight and i don t th
worked well? here s paul ryan criticizing the stimulus package, how terrible it was, deepening the deficit. then he makes personal requests for his own congressional district. that s a matter of record. i don t think paul ryan looked very good at the end of the day. he believed that stimulus plan was going to create jobs. that s exactly what it did. senator, this is ed. i don t know if pressure is the right word or not, but joe biden went in to this debate tonight. he had to accomplish something that maybe wasn t done in last week s debate. you being a veteran of the senate, i know you ve known joe for a long time. was there any doubt in your mind that he was going to come out and clear the plate tonight for the middle class? no, there wasn t. i didn t want to trump it ahead of time and say it s going to be a great debate for joe biden. you play down a little bit or don t get carried away.
good evening. it is now 11:00 p.m. here on the east coast. it is 8:00 in the west. you are watching ms nbc s continuing coverage of tonight s vice presidential debate from center college in danville, kentucky. if you did not get away from your television to pop the popcorn during the debate, planning on popping it during the boring moments and there weren t any, you re going to have to wait until the commercial break because there s more. vice president joe biden and paul ryan did just wrap up about 30 minutes ago. the obama campaign heading into tonight said they needed a strong performance from vice president biden tonight. by pretty much all accounts they got one. the fireworks tonight in this debate started almost from the very first moment. this benghazi issue would be a tragedy in and of itself, but unfortunately it s indicative of a broader problem. that is what we are watching on our tv screens is the unraveling of the obama foreign policy,
personal testimony to many americans that would have been inspired and gung ho for joe biden had he re-enforced the president was the guy calling the shots. the president made some hard decisions. ryan couldn t answer that. ryan sounded like a man that was giving talking points whereas biden talked like a man that had convictions. there was a little bit of style there tonight on the part of biden. at times he talked like a lunch bucket democrat. these guys. you know, these guys. it was masterful. i want to go to marsha blackburn. we ve heard from a couple people who are supporting obama and biden tonight. we want to bring congresswoman blackburn in. she s a republican from tennessee. she supports the romney/ryan tick. she joins us from the spin room tonight. congresswoman, thank you for your time tonight. nice to have you here. thank you. chris matthews, my colleague, is just outside the building where you are right now. chris, i know you wanted to get in the first question her