The Biden Opening Statement That Destroys Ryan & Romney

Transcript from Vice-Presidential Debate, Oct. 11, 2012

Vice-President Biden:

"Thank you. Let me begin by pointing out some facts. Last month's job report showed that unemployment is at its lowest level in four years. Last week's unemployment numbers, just out today, were the strongest weekly numbers in more than four years, since George W. Bush was president.

Our economy is not strong enough, not yet. But it is undoubtedly getting stronger. It is stronger than it was when Barack Obama took office. And it is far, far stronger than it would be if we had continued to follow the Republican policies of George W. Bush, the policies that brought us to the brink of another Great Depression. But it was the policies of Barack Obama that brought us back from that brink, that brought us to the stronger economy we now have. Folks, this is not about blaming President Bush, it's about learning from our mistakes. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan think we should go back to the failed Republican policies of the past. Barack Obama and I know that our country is better off than we were four years ago. We won't let Mitt Romney take us backward. We're going forward."

 

 

 

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Comments

[Baseball AccountA]

12:43 AM on 10/12/2012

Looks like Ryan needs to spend less time on his Bowflex and more time on Debate Prep.

[Phreddie]

06:26 PM on 10/11/2012

"Thank you. Let me begin by pointing out some facts. Last month's job report showed that unemployment is still above 11% and that the 'employment report' which shows a 0.3% drop in the 'unemployment rate' proves that 876,000 Americans were forced to take crummy, minimum wage (at best) part time 'jobs' in order to try to try to pay off the huge amount of debt overhang they've been forced to take on by the lack of good quality REAL jobs that the Campaigner--In-Chief promised would be created over the term of his administration. Thank you again."

[mebrat]

05:38 PM on 10/11/2012

I wish Joe reads this and change his opening statement to your suggestion. While we are talking about Unemployment rate, did you notice that the rate on Gallup is 7.4. It was 7.3 yesterday. Usually, the Gallup rate at the midpoint of the month is usually close to the rate that the BLS reports for the month. This may just be a coincident, but the fact that the Gallup rate declined further from their low of 7.7 last month bodes well for Obama.

[norman60]

05:12 PM on 10/11/2012

totally cute! I mean, if Biden says only this tonight, he will win. that's all what Americans want to hear tonight.

[etsi]

05:11 PM on 10/11/2012

i just hope joe calls ryan on any lies ryan tells.

[Independent1976]

04:42 PM on 10/11/2012

My big issue is this whole tax cuts cost billions....If that is the case then Tax hikes should save money

[lextender]

04:40 PM on 10/11/2012

One week offsets more than three years? You must be joking.

[Ty War]

04:34 PM on 10/11/2012

If you just lower the unemployment rate because the percent of those who give up looking because they are discouraged does not correlate to a strong economy. Things like Caterpillar lowering its income forecast thru 2015 AGAIN last month is a much strong indicator of growth factors.

[Openeyes]

04:49 PM on 10/11/2012

And yet manufacturing jobs have actually increased for the last 3 years under Obama, which has not happened since the 1960s.

[Nik Matt]

08:18 PM on 10/11/2012

Why do people keep pointing this out? If you're going to include the "discouraged" in the current unemployment rate you *MUST* make that inclusion for all prior unemployment rates you are comparing the current one to. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to compare the current U4 or U6 to historic U3 rates and I'm getting tired of having to point this seemingly obvious concept out to people. It's really not that hard to understand.

[Ian Reifowitz]

11:14 PM on 10/11/2012

Of course. Excellent point. One always must compare apples to apples.

[Ty War]

08:18 AM on 10/12/2012

Yes your right that is obvious. My post and this concept are not mutually exclusive. When you do compare the current rate+ discouraged workers to prior rates + discouraged works you find that the delta right now is higher then it has been in over 60 years. Your right this is not a complicated subject to understand. We have more discouraged workers right now at this moment then any time in our lives.

[Ronald Kirchem]

04:34 PM on 10/11/2012

From your keyboard to Biden's ears, I hope.

[SaucyD]

04:33 PM on 10/11/2012

Note to Joe Biden: Release the beast on them tonight!

[holycowbatman]

04:17 PM on 10/11/2012

With a little bit of Biden ooomph, this would work just fine. And then dont back down.

[Jennifer Reidy]

04:22 PM on 10/11/2012

He's a class act, and is the intellect of the democratic party, so why not leave it all in his hands?! *sarcasm*

[holycowbatman]

07:38 AM on 10/16/2012

I hear ya. You know what, for all the gaffs everyone claims Biden makes, he is actually consistently accurate, well stated and respectable. Look how many gaffs Romney has made in just this election cycle -- corporations are people, 47% want to be on welfare, horrible singing of America the Beautiful, stupid comments about the British, Spain, Israeli's, and Palestine, saying "I dont remember what i said but i stand by it", saying i "retroactively retired", "cheesy grits", "russia is our number one geopolitical foe", criticizing the handling of libya before he knew an ambassador had been killed, calling ryan the next president of the us, and many other gaffs! Also, the Romney campaign has had to correct things he has said policy wise on the campaign trail no less than 15 times..what a mess.

[genesis667]

04:15 PM on 10/11/2012

It might also be worth noting that the BLS is already floating the "THEORY" that the jobs number could be a fluke...They said it MAY go back up in a couple months...Yeah, like right after the election! This is the most crooked administration of all time! Bernanke saves QE3 for 60 days before the election to rally the markets, The BLS announces a huge drop in unemployment when not one single analyst had it modeled going below 8.1%...You people are sooooo gullible! Watch and see see if the Dec-Jan jobs number doesn't rocket back over 8.2%...

[Serfdumb]

04:49 PM on 10/11/2012

You must have forgotten about us being lied into an illegal war in Iraq during the last administration.
How many people died?

[genesis667]

06:48 PM on 10/11/2012

I see how your brains work, because someone else may or may not have done something, that justifies what this administration is doing, rightly or wrongly...Got it!

You people in lib land are odd!

[Paul Abrams]

05:05 PM on 10/11/2012

If Romney wins, unemployment will go to over 9%, probably to 10% and above.
So, you may be correct. Right now, it is 50/50.

[genesis667]

06:46 PM on 10/11/2012

Initially it will rise, the country is on the cusp of yet another recession right now....We are a mere 1% away....With Obamas job killing policies, even if he is reelected, the unemployment rate will be higher with him also...What's he going to do next time, throw another $6 trillion down the toilet on another temporary jobs boost....

[Ian Reifowitz]

08:04 PM on 10/11/2012

Great post on the contraception study, by the way. I'd love to see that come up in the debate.

[davcon777]

04:15 PM on 10/11/2012

sounds demagogic to me. politicians, politicians. Let them beat each other up while the nation goes to the dogs. Neither one can save us.

[Jennifer Reidy]

04:15 PM on 10/11/2012

What about the $16t debt Joe Blow?! The jobs numbers were skewed, it's all over the news. Seasonal employees, part-time... who can live on those wages?! Shouldn't even be factored in!

What about what happened in Libya - our national defenses are WEAK, as is our POTUS, and so is this argument!

[David Hughes CGI]

04:43 PM on 10/11/2012

It's not factored in, Jennifer. There are several types of unemployment/jobs numbers. The ones that are commonly cited are pretty rigorous and don't count seasonal employees as employed. It counts part-time employees—but only if they're not looking for full time work. So a college student who doesn't want a full time job wouldn't be counted as unemployed, but someone working at McDonalds until he can start a real career would be counted as unemployed.

[finebalance]

04:53 PM on 10/11/2012

The Republican's have drank from the well of lies for so long that a taste of truth from any source is like poison to them. Anything but the truth is their motto............

[Jennifer Reidy]

05:23 PM on 10/11/2012

That's the lying libs motto lately. You are all imploding so all you can say is liar, liar, pants on fire.

[doug sams]

04:12 PM on 10/11/2012

What, no Big Bird?

[Private Ryan]

06:25 PM on 10/11/2012

"They want to put Big Bird back in chains!"