Vice presidency candidates clash over foreign policy and economy

Mr Biden sought to make up for President Barack Obama’s lacklustre performance last week against his opponent, Mitt Romney.

Mr Biden and Mr Ryan went head-to-head over the Obama administration’s policy in Libya and Iran in the opening minutes of a contentious vice presidential debate, with Mr Ryan citing it as evidence that it is weakening America’s standing in the world.

It only grew more heated as the candidates sniped at each other over Afghanistan and Syria, as well as the slow economy, taxes and the government health care program for the elderly.

It was a combative performance on both sides, with both men repeatedly interrupting each other – and the moderator too.

“That’s a bunch of malarkey,” Mr Biden retorted – twice. The vice president also referred to Mr Ryan’s statements as “a bunch of stuff”.

The stakes are not generally this high in vice presidential debates, but Mr Biden was under pressure to restore energy to the Democratic campaign less than a month before the November 6 election.

Mr Ryan, a congressman from Wisconsin who at 42 is a generation younger than his opponent, fought to hold on to the Republicans’ sudden rise in the polls that followed the Obama-Romney debate.

Thursday night’s debate at a small college in Kentucky was everything that the presidential one was not: substantive and contentious. Mr Biden rolled his eyes and laughed in disbelief at some of Mr Ryan’s statements while Mr Ryan said Mr Obama had allowed Iran to get four years closer to building a nuclear weapon.