After fiery showdown Biden, Ryan set the stage for second presidential debate

>>> the stage has been set for next week's second presidential debate after last night's spiritual showdown that offered healthy servings of red meat to both bases.

>> shouldn't be surprising for a guy who says 47% of the american people are unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives.

>> romney is a good man. he cares about 100% of the americans this this country. with respect to that quote, i think the vice president very well knows sometimes the words don't come out of your mouth the right way.

>> i always say what i mean. soy does romney .

>> let's bring in former new york congressman rick lazio and democratic strategist steve elmindore. let me read you a tweet from ezra klein . " obama looked like he didn't want to be debating romney in the first place. biden looked like he never wanted his debate with ryan to end." what did you think?

>> i thought there was a huge difference in temperament. i thought paul ryan seemed vice presidential . he was serious, respectful, it temperament set the right tone. i thought vice president biden interrupted, inappropriate smiling, laughing, giggling, i thought he looked like sometimes like he was trying out for "one flew over the cuckoo's nest." it didn't seem vice presidential . didn't seem like he hit the mark. one thing they missed. paul ryan laid out what the romney / ryan agenda would be for the future. you didn't hear anything new at all from vice president biden about what the obama administration's going to do to get down unemployment, to spark growth. all the things they've been failing at. they have laid out no vision at all to address that.

>> his point was that vice president joe biden was inappropriate and insubstantial. what was your take?

>> i thought he was passionate. i thought he was personal and i thought he was very substantial. i thought he really won the debate. i think that he was willing to be specific in a way paul ryan wasn't. i think paul ryan did not have an answer to the question of what's your $5 trillion tax plan, what exactly what benefits are you going to cut? what exactly are you going to do? i don't think he had an answer on afghanistan. the only thing paul ryan had a specific answer on he and romney are willing to take away a woman's right to choose.

>> if you look at what happened afterwards and hearing the talking heads this morning, democrats thought joe biden did a great job. republicans think paul ryan did a good job. if that is the perception there was no clear winner the way there was in the presidential debate and the idea was will this reset the stage for this second presidential debate does the president start this debate in a hole?

>> no. i think -- this is a close race. we always thought it would be a close race. biden did a great job last night. the president admitted and people around him admitted he didn't have his best night. tuesday night he will have a much better night. you're going to see what you saw last night, which is two very different views about the future of the country, and two very different views about how they are going to move the country forward. we'll see that tuesday night.

>> it's a different debate. i've done debates before. you know that the moderator can make a difference. certainly the rules can make a difference. this is a town hall style. i think that when you're answering the question from somebody in the audience, does it make it a little harder to be aggressive? does it make it harder to target, or is this really no different? you need to get your point across and be as aggressive as you think you need to be?

>> i think it is different. you need to be more conversational. the candidates need to be a little more careful about the tone they set. i think the likability factors become a tick bit more important in terms of communicating a confidence and tone where people would feel like --

>> does that favor the president? polls show people like him more.

>> i think not. in the end, the point that is going to be made over and over again -- listen, growth is less this year than it was last year. growth last year was less than the year before. during the obama administration, each year growth is dropping. all the goals, all the targets that president obama has laid out in terms of growth rates, unemployment rates, those have all fallen short by a significant amount. his 2010 budget had us growing at 4.6% this year. we'll be at 1.3% this year. today the " wall street journal " had a survey of 50 economists. they think unemployment is not going to be better six months from now than it is right now. that is a tragedy for millions of americans . the 23 million americans out of a job or can't find a job or have dropped out of the work force because this obama economy. they've begin up.

>> do you think we'll hear more about the economy if these are questions for real people ? this is more foreign policy than some people expected last night. we have an entire foreign policy debate coming up. is this debate going to be about the economy?

>> the next debate will be domestic and about the economy. i think it is a great opportunity for obama to have a conversation with the american people and people asking him questions about what his plan is for future. i think ryan and romney , while they talk about having a five-point plan, they are not willing to be specific. they are not willing to be specific about their $5 trillion in tax cuts and what they are going to do for the middle class .

>> can i ask you both quickly, and look further ahead than tuesday night. 2016 , did either of these candidates, do you think, increase their chances, maybe of running for president, if not then maybe for paul ryan in the future?

>> 2016 -- i hope we don't have to talk about 2016 . we have 26 more days to talk about this one and then can we take a break before we get to that?

>> i think it's more like 2020 for paul ryan because i expect that mitt romney will be elected and we'll be standing again in 2016 . paul ryan did help himself. he came across informed, sober, credible, wasn't flustered by biden 's antics. i think that was important. i think you'll see a lot of swing voters and independent voters gravitate to that style, that tone that he did show a level of leadership people are looking for.

>> always good to have you on the program. thank you.