PM Note: Friday Night Fights, Hillary Speaks, Bad Joe on Benghazi, Good Joe on the Base
A Viral Video Sets Martha Raddatz at the VP debate to Chamillionaire It makes more sense than you might think. Watch it: http://bit.ly/Ou42wW
Sunday - This Week has Jake Tapper interviewing Rob Portman, Mitt Romney's debate prepper, and Beau Biden, Joe's son. Plus, our special "This Week" panel, in partnership with the University of Virginia's Miller Center, gives further insights into presidential debates, tackling the question "Do Presidential Debates Change Elections?" - http://abcn.ws/X2bCA3
Friday Night Fights - Buzz Bissinger and Peter Berg have a Romney disagreement - http://abcn.ws/THTug3
Bissinger made it into Politically Foul with Amy Walter - http://yhoo.it/Q52GoD
Last Night's Other Debate Brawl-A debate last night between Democratic Reps. Howard Berman and Brad Sherman, who are running against each other for the same California seat because of redistricting, got physical. After Sherman puts his arm around Berman, a police officer intervenes. http://abcn.ws/RTrXpp (Jonathan Karl)
Hillary Speaks - The carryover from debate had lots to do with Benghazi and Joe Biden's comment that the administration didn't know about requests for increased security. Those requests were detailed Wednesday in a hearing on Capitol Hill.
Dana Hughes reports that Hillary Clinton took a rare question on the issue and used some careful wording - which included that she's "cooperating" with the investigation - to defend Amb. Susan Rice and everyone in the administration.
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"To this day we do not have a complete picture, we do not have all the answers," she said. "No one in this administration has ever claimed otherwise. Every one of us have made clear that we are providing the best information we have at that time. And that information continues to be updated. It also continues to be put into context and more deeply understood." http://abcn.ws/SQvA09
More on Benghazi and Our Full Buffet of Debate Night Fact Checks - http://abcn.ws/RBgVDl
WH Clarifies Biden's Benghazi Embassy Security Comment-Questions on Vice President Joe Biden's comments about the Benghazi embassy attack in his debate last night, specifically that "we weren't told they wanted more security there. We did not know they wanted more security again," dominated the daily briefing by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney today. http://abcn.ws/RD0czq (Jon Garcia)
But the drumbeat on Benghazi from Republicans has intensified:
An 'Inconvenient' Terror Attack - We'll point again to Mitch McConnell's interview on the ABC News / Yahoo! News live stream last night -
"It leaves you with the suspicion that since the president was in the campaign going around reminding everybody that bin Laden was gone and we were out of Iraq and we would soon be out of Afghanistan and implying that the war on terror was over that the campaign just felt it was inconvenient that we had a terrorist attack," McConnell said.
Romney Says Biden Doubled Down on Denial Regarding Libya Attacks-Mitt Romney today said Vice President Joe Biden is "doubling down on denial" when he said during the debate last night that the administration was not told the U.S. consulate in Libya wanted more security ahead of the deadly attacks there last month. http://abcn.ws/WcwTaN (Emily Friedman)
Flip Side - Benghazi was the bad news for Joe Biden. There's good news too, according to Greg Krieg: Joe Biden drove a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Democratic Party last night with the kind of persistent and colorful attack on the Romney ticket that President Obama had struggled to make just a week before. The jury's still out on how Biden's performance played with swing voters, but for the segments of the base discouraged by Romney's emphatic showing at the Denver debate, Thursday night provided relief and renewed optimism. The full day after wrap - http://abcn.ws/SViYAE
Debate Hangover - Republicans continued to paint Joe Biden as something of a nutty uncle. Democrats continued to paint Paul Ryan as spewer of questionable facts.
Don't believe either side. There was no clear winner at Thursday's Vice Presidential debate. But there were plenty of memes, if you can still stand that word.
Amy Walter and Dan Kloeffler broke it down on the post-debate stream - http://abcn.ws/SV2pVf
Next up? Townhall Tuesday. It's a new format that could test Mitt Romney's dominance of Barack Obama a week ago.
Ryan Skips the Stimulus at Breakfast-Paul Ryan said today that he "felt great" about his debate with Vice President Biden, but declined to discuss Biden's taunting reference to Ryan's request for stimulus funds after criticizing the Obama administration program. http://abcn.ws/QhULX7 (Shushannah Walshe)
Romney, McDonnell Praise Ryan's Debate Performance During Virginia Rally-Mitt Romney and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell praised Paul Ryan's debate performance last night, telling a crowd here that there was only one person on stage who was "thoughtful, and respectful, stead, and poised." http://abcn.ws/R471uG(Emily Friedman)
VP Debate Winner: It May Not Matter-Who won the Thursday's vice presidential debate? That's question is being debated by politicos, but the answer may take some time to emerge. (Elizabeth Hartfield)
'12 Voting Well Under Way; Who's 'Winning' Not Clear-The general election may technically still be a little more than three weeks away, but voting is going on now. http://abcn.ws/TciCq6 (Elizabeth Hartfield)