Before last night’s Vice Presidential debate down in Kentucky, I could state with pretty strong confidence that Martha Raddatz was fairly known, but not well enough.
She is the Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent for ABC News and a bulldog of a reporter.
Well, last night the American people played witness to her prowess. She was deft, clear, strong, concise and most of all, she was steady.
Neither candidate, Mr. Biden or Mr. Ryan, was able to pull control of the debate from her hands. She made sure to keep both men in line and asked them both very tough questions.
In regards to Libya, she pressed Biden on the Obama administration’s “intelligence failures” and when it came to taxes and economic growth, she asked Ryan for details on Romney’s economic plan. When he took everyone watching all around Robin Hood’s barn to get to an answer and never arrived, she simply stated, “Still no specifics?”
Raddatz was looked up on to bring a little toughness back to the debate table. Presidential debate moderator Jim Lehrer was very passive in his dealings with Romney and Obama and was highly criticized for it.
Mrs. Raddatz made sure to serve as a clear counter to Lehrer.
Outside of Raddatz and her clear win on Thursday night, there were two men facing off to show the American people why their vote belongs to Obama or Romney.
From my eyes, Biden seemed to take the younger Ryan to the woodshed. Ryan seemed on his heels and out of sorts at times. He drank at least four glasses of water and never directly answered any of Raddatz’s questions.
But not to let Biden off the hook, he was a little too apoplectic at times. He repeatedly cut off Ryan and mocked him during certain parts of the debate. It threw Ryan off and fired up the Democratic base, but it may have turned off a few undecided voters.
In the end, Biden more than made up for Obama’s lackluster performance last week against Romney. He mentioned Romney’s insensitive 47 percent comment and did his best to paint the Romney/Ryan ticket as bad for America.
Still, it was a great night for Martha Raddatz. Biden and Ryan were just the decorations for the night.
-JH
