Tagged: Will Durst

It's ugly out there, people! As expected, following the holiday recess, we're seeing a lot of bluster and bombast building up on the beltway and that has managed to slow progress on every budget deal ramp to a virtual crawl. Three or four 18-wheelers full of election day rancor have overturned. And as you might have imagined, rubber-necking has resulted in not so tender fender benders. 

In this highly anticipated undercard bout, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan took off the gloves and went after each other with straight policy jabs and sweeping rhetorical hooks for 90 minutes. No knockdowns were recorded, but most ringside judges gave the decision to Biden for stopping his own party's bleeding and blocking his opponent's momentum. Kudos were also tossed Martha Raddatz's way, who referreed the event with a command and aplomb that had veteran observers refer to her as the anti-Jim Lehrer.