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A week after President Barack Obama’s debate with Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, Americans tuned in last night to watch Vice President Joe Biden square off against his Republican Vice Presidential challenger, Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

The debate, which was paid for by a number of major US corporations including Anheuser-Busch and Southwest Airlines, was held at Centre College in Danville Kentucky. Martha Raddatz, Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent for ABC News, moderated the lively 90 plus minute long debate.

The Vice Presidential debate stood in stark contrast to last week’s subdued affair between Romney and Obama. Biden, aggressively defended Obama’s record on Libya, Iran, Israel, Afghanistan, and Syria as well as domestic issues like healthcare, tax cuts, Medicare and Social Security.

Ryan tried to appeal to middle class voters by promising to tax high earners but Biden managed to criticize the more controversial statements made by Romney during the campaign which President Obama had failed to mention last week. Biden brought up Romney’s notorious videotaped comments, where Romney had said that 47 percent of Americans believed they were “victims” and demanded entitlements. Biden also mentioned Romney’s interview with 60 minutes where he declared that a lower tax rate on capital gains was “fair”.

Biden never discussed Bain Capital’s offshore tax havens or challenged a statement made by Raddatz that Social Security was going broke, but he did manage to distinguish himself from Ryan by taking a strong stance on a women’s right to choose when it comes to abortion.

GUESTS: Imara Jones is the Economic Justice Contributor to Colorlines.com, Gareth Porter is an award winning investigative journalist who specializes in national security policy and is an Afghanistan expert