This ends the AFP Live Report on the Vice Presidential debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. The next debate will be between the men at the top of the ticket, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on October 16.
US Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan (R) listens to Vice President Joe Biden during their debate at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.
0232 GMT: The two men wrap up by outlining their positions and the debate ends.
Both needed to walk the fine line between rallying their base while appealing to the few remaining undecided voters.
Whether either was successful in convincing voters to choose his team's vision for the future will be seen in the short weeks before November 6.
0229 GMT: Ryan says there are plenty of people who could lead the country, but that he, along with Romney, would do what they promise and bring solutions.
Biden says he lets his long record of public service stand.
"I never say anything I don't mean. Everybody knows everything I say, I do."
0226 GMT: The answers, however, are veering into closing statements, with both men slamming the other's positions, so Raddatz asks them to say what unique trait he has that qualifies him to serve.
0225 GMT: Raddatz closes with a question about a US solider who says he is "disgusted" by the tone of the presidential campaign.
0221 GMT: Biden says his Catholic faith shapes his life, but, "I do not believe we have a right to tell other people how to control their bodies."
"I accept the Church's position but I refuse to impose the Church's doctrine on others."
0218 GMT: Ryan goes first, saying that he his firmly pro-life because of both "reason and science." He movingly tells the story of seeing his daughter's heartbeat at only seven weeks of gestation.
"Our baby was the shape of a bean. And to this day, our nickname for Liza has been Bean."
0216 GMT: Nearing the end of the alloted time, Raddatz asks the two men, both practicing Catholics, to discuss their position on abortion.
0210 GMT: The men are asked about situation in Syria, which Raddatz firmly calls a civil war.
Biden says there is nothing more a Romney adminstration could have done to prevent slaughter there.
He asks if Romney wants to put US boots on the ground there.
"Nobody is proposing to send troops to Syria, American troops," Ryan responds.
0207 GMT: Biden attacks:
"That's a bizarre statement. 49 allies. Hear me. 49 of our allies signed on to this position. 49. 49 of our allies said out in 2014. It's the responsibility of the Afghans. We have other responsibilities."
0202 GMT: The two candidates are debating the advantage of setting 2014 as a firm timeline for leaving Afghanistan.
Ryan says he does not disagree with the troops leaving at that time, but says that annoucing the date emboldened the enemy.
0157 GMT: Raddatz has had enough of the candidates talking over each other. She shuts down the tax talk and moves onto Afghanistan.
0154 GMT: Ryan says the Republican plan to cut taxes would create 7 million jobs.
"We think that government taking 28% of a family and business's income is enough. President Obama thinks that the government ought to be able to take as much as 44.8% of a small business's income."
0150 GMT: Biden is still laughing at Ryan's responses, so much that there is already at fake Twitter account: @laughinJoeBiden. He is also interrupting and interjecting while Ryan tries to defend the Republican tax policies.
Biden calls Ryan "my friend" for at least the fifth time.
0147 GMT: "We will be no part of a voucher program or the privatization of Social Security."
But Ryan is defending his position, which critics have said would end Medicare as a secure benefit with vouchers.
"Medicare and social security are going bankrupt. These are indisputable facts...
"A voucher is you go to your mailbox, get a check and buy something. Nobody is proposing that.
0146 GMT: The candidates are talking over each other as the topic moves to the issues of the retirement scheme Social Security and health care for the elderly, known as Medicare.
0141 GMT: Again, Ryan seems prepared for the attack, reminding the audience that the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress when Obama was first elected.
"Let's not forget that they came in with one party control. When Barack Obama was elected, his party controlled everything. They had the ability to do everything of their choosing and look at where we are right now.
"They passed the stimulus. The idea that we could borrow $831 billion, spend it on these special interest groups and it would work out just fine. That unemployment would never get to 8%. They said right now if
we just pass this stimulus, the economy would grow at 4%. It's growing at 1.3%.
0135 GMT: Biden blames Republican policies for the struggling economy.
"And by the way, they talk about this Great Recession as if it fell out of the sky, like oh, my goodness, where it did come from?"
"It came from this man voting to put two cars on a credit card, at the same time put a prescription drug benefit on the credit card, a trillion dollar tax cut for the wealthy. I voted against them. I said no, we can't afford that.'
0130 GMT: Ryan is prepared for Biden to raise the Romney gaffe.
"I think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don't come out of your mouth the right
way," he says.
0129 GMT: The questioning moves onto the economy and Biden waits 25 minutes before referring to the "47 percent" comment that has haunted Romney since he was secretly recorded seeming to dismiss almost have the country as victims who depend on government.
0126 GMT: Biden is literally laughing at his rivals answers.
"Look, imagine had we let Republican congress work out the sanctions.
Do 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 Governor Romney is asked about it, he said we've got to keep these sanctions. Are you going to go to war? Is that what you want to do now?
"We want to prevent war," Paul interjects.
"How are they going to prevent war? They say there's nothing more we should do than what we've already done. Number two, with regard to the ability to have the united states to take action militarily, it is not in my per view to talk about classified information, but we feel confident that we can deal a serious blow to the Iranians.
0120 GMT: Ryan says the Republican ticket would be firmer on Iran.
"When this administration says that all options are on the table, they send out senior administration officials that send all these mixed signals."
"To solve this peacefully, which is everybody's goal, you have to have the ayatollahs change their mind. It's because this administration delayed sanctions. Now we have sanctions in place because of congress. They say the military options are on the table, but it's not being viewed as credible.
"The key is to make sure we have credibility. Under a Romney administration, we will have credibility on this issue."
0114 GMT: Raddatz moves on Iran, asking the candidates to differentiate the two camps' stands on what she called "the most important foreign policy issue" of the day.
0111 GMT: Biden slams Ryans claims, noting that Ryan's famous budget proposal cut embassy security by 300 million dollars. He gets in his first zinger slamming Romney's quick statement after the attack in Benghazi.
"Usually when there's a crisis, we pull together. We pull together as a nation. But as I said, even before we knew what happened to the ambassador, the governor was holding a press conference. That's not presidential leadership."
0109 GMT: Ryan responds by saying a Mitt Romney adminstration would beef up embassy security.
"Our ambassador in Paris has a Marine detachment guarding him. Shouldn't we have a marine detachment guarding our ambassador in Benghazi, a place we knew there was an Al-qaeda cell with arms? This is becoming more troubling by the day."
0107 GMT: Biden answers by admitting mistakes in the handling of the attack, but vows to hunt and find those responsible.
0105 GMT: Raddatz holds no punches, starting with a tough question about the September 11 attack in Libya that left US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead.
"Wasn't this a massive intelligence failure?" she asks Biden.
0101 GMT: Raddatz is introducing the two candidates and welcoming them to the semi-circular table.
Both enter smiling, in striped ties and wave to their families in the audience.
0056 GMT: Biden prepped for the debate at a hotel near his Delaware home.
According to CNN photos, a hotel ballroom was converted into a mock debate stage, with a blue backdrop, red carpet and curved table like the one the two men will share.
Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, played the youthful Ryan. He has known Ryan for years and worked with him closely as the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, which Ryan chairs.
For the Republicans, debate prep followed Ryan on the campaign trail. Interestingly, famed GOP lawyer Ted Olson played Biden in their mock debates.
Olson is a Washington institution, having served as Solicitor General under president George W. Bush. Olson’s wife Barbara, a conservative lawyer and commentator, was killed in the plane that was flown in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. He has since married a life-long Democrat and waged a high-profile battle to fights bans on same-sex marriage.
0050 GMT: Tonight's debate is being held Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, a small Liberal Arts college of only 1,300 students with a strong study abroad program and alumni with a history of success in politics and government.
Among the A-listers in the audience tonight will be a portrait of Fred Vinson, a Centre College alumnus who served on the US Supreme Court from 1946 to 1953. A fraternity brings the portrait, dubbed “Dead Fred,” to all major campus events.
The school hosted the vice presidential debate in 2000 between Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman.
Included in the welcome gifts awaiting reporters covering this debate? Kentucky bourbon whiskey.
0046 GMT: Both Biden and Ryan have spoken tonight with their running mates on the phone, getting best wishes from the top of the tickets.
0039 GMT: Both Biden and Ryan have arrived in the hall on the campus of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky ahead of tonight's 90-minute debate.
ABC News's Martha Raddatz will be the moderator, opening at 0100 with a question for the vice president. The topics will range from domestic issues to foreign policy.
Each candidate will have two minutes to respond to the question and then there is additional time for discussion. There will also be closing statements.
Welcome to AFP's Live Report on the one and only debate between the two candidates for vice president, Democrat Joe Biden, the elder statesman who has held the post for almost four years and Republican Paul Ryan, the young congressman who wants his job.
Biden, 69, was senator from Delaware from 1973 until he resigned to serve as vice president under Barack Obama. He is known for his expertise in foreign policy and often recounts his hard-scrabble upbringing in Pennsylvania. Biden's political career has been shaped by tragedy, after his wife and child were killed in a car accident just after he was first elected. A seasoned debater, he is is also prone to veering way off his prepared talking points, to the point of a gaffe
Ryan, 42, has served as congressman from Wisconsin since 1999. He rose to national prominence for a budget proposal lauded by conservatives for cutting costs and slammed by liberals for slashing social programs. Both men are observant Catholics.
The international media is focused on the two running mates tonight, but history suggests that the vice presidential debates have little effect on the outcome of presidential elections. They are ripe for zingers and memorable exchanges, however. Will we see any like these tonight?
In 1984, sitting vice president George H.W. Bush faced the first woman to be nominated on a major party ticket, Geraldine Ferraro. In a debate about foreign policy, Bush stepped on a landmine by seeming to school the three-term lawmaker.
"Let me help you, Mrs. Ferraro, with the differences between Iran and the embassy in Lebanon...." he said. Ferraro, a third-term lawmaker, allowed him to finish but answered, "I resent Vice President Bush's patronizing attitude, that you have to teach me about foreign policy."
Even more memorable was a 1988 exchange between Democratic senator Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle, who, at 41, tried to defend his youth by saying he had as much legislative experience as assassinated president John F. Kennedy.
"Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy," he said to cheers and whistles from the crowd.
Although memorable, neither of the candidates who offered up those zingers ended up winning the vice presidency.