Biden and Palin Clash Over the Economy and the War

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden (D) and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) concluded their highly anticipated vice presidential debate in St. Louis tonight aftter 90 minutes of mostly friendly but often pointed exchanges on the economy, taxes and the war, as the bulk of their discussions focused more on the presidential nominees than the records of the two running mates.

Biden sought to closely link Sen. John McCain, Palin's running mate, to the economic policies of the Bush administration, while Palin portrayed McCain as a reformist who had sounded an early warning about the country's financial crisis.

Palin made her most aggressive move so far on Iraq, saying that Obama "opposed funding for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan," and bringing up a comment from Biden's days as a presidential candidate, when he criticized an Obama vote on troop funding as "political."

Biden dismissed the suggestion of a difference between the two ticketmates. "Barack Obama and I agree completely on one thing -- you've got to have a timeline" to draw down the number of troops in Iraq and hand over responsibilities to the Iraqi government, Biden said.

To Palin's charge that the Democratic plan was tantamount to "waving the white flag of surrender," Biden responded by saying that "John McCain has been dead wrong on the fundamental issues related to the conduct of the war. Barack Obama has been right. Those are the facts."

Biden and Palin launched their highly anticipated vice presidential debate in St. Louis, as the Democratic ticket appears to be on the upswing with less than five weeks until Election Day.