The Top Quotes of the Vice Presidential Debate

Oct. 11, 2012 — -- intro: Sparks flew at the first and only vice presidential debate Thursday night as Joe Biden and Paul Ryan squared off over everything from Libya to tax loopholes.

Here's a look at some of the best zingers, quick hits and policy exchanges that the vice presidential candidates made during the debate.

quicklist: 1title: Biden on Malarkeytext: RYAN: We should not be imposing these devastating defense cuts, because what that does when we equivocate on our values, when we show that we're cutting down on defense, it makes us more weak. It projects weakness. And when we look weak, our adversaries are much more willing to test us. They're more brazen in their attacks and our allies are less willing to--

BIDEN: With all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey.

RADDATZ: And why is that so?

BIDEN: Because not a single thing he said is accurate.

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quicklist: 2title: Ryan on Being Pro-Lifetext: "Now, you want to ask basically why I'm pro-life? It's not simply because of my Catholic faith. That's a factor, of course. But it's also because of reason and science.

"You know, I think about 10 1/2 years ago, my wife Janna and I went to Mercy Hospital in Janesville where I was born for our seven-week ultrasound for our first-born child, and we saw that heartbeat. A little baby was in the shape of a bean. And to this day, we have nicknamed our first-born child, Liza, "Bean." Now I believe that life begins at conception.

"That's why-- Those are the reasons why I'm pro-life."

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quicklist: 2title: Biden to Republicans on the Economytext: "I've never met two guys who are more down on America across the board. We're told everything's going bad. There are 5.2 million new jobs, private-sector jobs. We need more, but 5.2 million-- If they'd get out of the way, if they'd get out of the way and let us pass the tax cut for the middle class, make it permanent, if they get out of the way and pass the jobs bill, if they get out of the way and let us allow 14 million people who are struggling to stay in their homes because their mortgages are upside down but they never missed a mortgage payment-- Just get out of the way.

"Stop talking about how you care about people. Show me something. Show me a policy. Show me a policy where you take responsibility."

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quicklist: 3title:Biden on Iran Sanctionstext:BIDEN: It's incredible. Look, imagine had we let the Republican Congress work out the sanctions. You think there's any possibility the entire world would have joined us, Russia and China, all of our allies? These are the most crippling sanctions in the history of sanctions, period. Period.

When Gov. Romney's asked about it, he said, "We gotta keep these sanctions." When he said, "Well, you're talking about doing more," what are, you're going to go to war? Is that what you want to do?

RYAN: We want to prevent war.

BIDEN: And the interesting thing is, how are they going to prevent war? How are they going to prevent war if they say there's nothing more that they say we should do than what we've already done.

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quicklist: 6title: Ryan on Obama Tax Plantext: "There aren't enough rich people and small businesses to tax to pay for all their spending. And so the next time you hear them say, 'Don't worry about it, we'll get a few wealthy people to pay their fair share,' watch out, middle class, the tax bill's coming to you."

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quicklist: 7title: Biden's Jack Kennedy Quiptext: RYAN: You can cut tax rates by 20 percent and still preserve these important preferences for middle-class taxpayers--

BIDEN: Not mathematically possible.

RYAN: It is mathematically possible. It's been done before. It's precisely what we're proposing.

BIDEN: It has never been done before.

RYAN: It's been done a couple of times, actually.

BIDEN: It has never been done before.

RYAN: Jack Kennedy lowered tax rates, increased growth. Ronald Reagan--

BIDEN: Oh, now you're Jack Kennedy?

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quicklist: 7title: Ryan on Receiving Social Security Benefitstext: "After my dad died, my mom and I got Social Security survivor's benefits. Helped me pay for college. It helped her go back to college in her 50s, where she started a small business because of the new skills she got. She paid all of her taxes on the promise that these programs would be there for her.

"We will honor this promise. And the best way to do it is reform it for my generation.

"You see, if you reform these programs for my generation, people 54 and below, you can guarantee they don't change for people in or near retirement, which is precisely what Mitt Romney and I are proposing."

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quicklist: 4title: Biden on Benghazi Attack text: "I can make absolutely two commitments to you and all the American people tonight. One, we will find and bring to justice the men who did this. And secondly, we will get to the bottom of it. And wherever the facts lead us, wherever they lead us, we will make clear to the American public, because whatever mistakes were made will not be made again."

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quicklist: 4title: Ryan on the Benghazi Attacktext: "When you take a look at what has happened just in the last few weeks, they sent the U.N. ambassador out to say that this was because of a protest and a YouTube video. It took the president two weeks to acknowledge that this was a terrorist attack.

"He went to the U.N. and in his speech at the U.N. he said six times -- he talked about the YouTube video.

"Look, if we're hit by terrorists we're going to call it for what it is, a terrorist attack. Our ambassador in Paris has a Marine detachment guarding him. Shouldn't we have a Marine detachment guarding our ambassador in Benghazi, a place where we knew that there was an al Qaida cell with arms?

"This is becoming more troubling by the day. They first blamed the YouTube video. Now, they're trying to blame the Romney-Ryan ticket for making this an issue."

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