begins at conception. the policy of a romney administration will be to oppose abortion. >> i accept my church's position on abortion. i just refuse to impose that on others. >> laura: at last night's debate push the democrats war on women claim back to the forefront of the campaign? we will hear from both sides. caution, you are about to enter the no spin zone, the factor begins right now. hi, everyone, i'm laura ingraham in for bill o'reilly. thanks for watching us tonight. the truth about the debate. that's the subject of this evening's talking points memo. joe biden showed up last night in kentucky with twin goals, one, to blunt mitt romney's post debate momentum and two to give a boost to a democratic base that had become quite anxious after the president's terrible denver debate performance. i will give biden this much. last night he went from being a gaffe omatic to being a laugh omatic. >> the obama administration had the exact same position. let's recall that they disavowed their own now we have them in place because of congress, they say the military option is on the table but not being viewed as credible so they stopped viewing nuclear weapons. >> how do you do it so quickly? you both saw benjamin netanyahu. >> we can debate the time line. whether it's that short of time or longer. i agree it's probably longer. number two, thank heavens we had these sanctions in place. it's in spite of their opposition. >> oh, god. >> laura: this was odd. even learnt guys -- elevate left of center. found the constant smirking, smiling and constant interrupting off-putting. in your face debate strategy didn't wear so well and perhaps distracted from some of the stronger substantive points. speaking of substance, joe biden told a number of big whoppers last night but i'm going to stick to three of them. first, on why there wasn't adequate security in place on 9/11 in benghazi. >> we weren't told they wanted more security there we did not know they wanted more security there. by the way, at the time we were told exactly -- we said exactly what the intelligence community told us that they knew. >> now, was the vice president so engrossed in his debated prep that he was unaware of the fact that the former top security official in libya, eric nordstrom testified this week on capitol hill that he had repeatedly asked for more security? and, yet, was turned down? number two: when asked who would pay more taxes in a second obama term, biden answered people making more than a million dollars or more. totally misleading. the associated press today reports that obama's proposed tax increase reaches individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000 a year. and number three, there was biden's defense of the hhs contraception mandate. >> no religious institution, catholic or otherwise, including catholic social services, georgetown hospital, mercy hospital, any hospital, none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. that is a fact. >> laura: false. today the u.s. conference of catholic bishops rebuked the vice president noting that the so-called accommodation, the obama administration promised for catholic hospitals, universities, and other religious charities isn't an accommodation at all. they will all still serve as a vehicle for contraception, abore that face drugs and sterilizations because their health insurance premiums still will cover those services. now, ryan himself had some difficulty on the foreign policy questions and allowed, i think, the moderator to cut him off too easily. without a doubt, joe biden's demeanor and his mendacity made him both less likeable and less credible. and that's the memo. now on to the top story reaction, joining us from new york is chris hahn. is he a democratic strategist and fox news contributor and with us here in washington, simon rosenberg, the president of mdm a center left think tank. all right, simon, let's start with you. gergen, come pro-call and others -- tom brokaw and others joe biden looked a little silly the man was almost 70 years old acting like an eighth grader at the school yard trying to taunt the kid maybe not in the cool crowd. >> look, i think joe biden as you said did what he had to do last night. he was aggressive. he took on paul ryan and the republicans and their arguments in a way that barack obama frankly didn't do in the previous debate. he had energy and vigor which i think is what democrats were looking for. i think you saw joe biden last night maybe not everybody has seen joe biden over the years in debates and other places, but i felt that was the joe biden that i know. and i don't think there was any pretense. as he said, i mean what i say and i say what i mean. >> laura: middle class has been buried in the last four years. that helps the republicans. >> he had a good night. democrats are very happy. as you are well aware the republicans are pretty happy today, too. both sides got what they wanted. >> let's go to you, chris, i'm looking at some the polls. cnn did an instant poll and it showed that 48% of the people who watched thought that really paul ryan had the better of the debate. 44% biden. i think within the margin of error. it was pretty time nevertheless, let's say paul ryan had done to biden what biden did to paul ryan just on the gesturing. just on the laughing. how do you think the media today would be playing all of this? how do you think they would be reacting? i have a feeling they would say it was really disrespectful of the vice president and unbecoming a man such as paul ryan. that's just my sense. >> you know, look, i think the polls show that people saw what they wanted to see in the debate. if you were predisposed to like democrats you loved what joe biden did. i loved what joe bide deny. if you are a republic, you loved what ryan did. that's the tway goes. if ryan would have acted up and been more in your face it, probably wouldn't have gone well for him simply because he has got the age factor. look, is he very young-looking. is he very young, in fact. so, he has to act a little bit more reserve. he has to stay within himself or he would come across very poorly. i think joe did what the democratic party needed him to do. there has been a lot of hand ringing among the party. whoa is me since the last performance. joe biden come out there and took it to the republicans last night the way republicans wanted it so see. >> laura: i'm trying to watch as it someone who is not a conservative commentator and trying to put myself in the position of those families out there that are struggling and i bet a lot of them watch some of the debate but maybe tuned it out after a while. because i think they see a washington that is more focused on getting incumbents reelected than it is of solving the real problems in this country. biden might have scored a point here or there ryan might have held his own. in the end, what do the american people really learn in this debate about how a 16 trillion-dollar debt. 4 trillion which mounted under this presidency. how did they find that this was going to be in any way diminished in the next four years let's say under a barack obama. >> listen, i have a slightly different take. i got pretty bored last night, too. let me say. it was a vigorous debate. i mean, these two guys really enjoined each other in a significant way. i think this is what we want, right? >> yep. >> when you see these two parties fighting for the stuff they care about. >> laura: how was it vigorous when joe biden got the main thing wrong about your guy's tax policy. millionaires only ones covered? it's 250,000. >> answered the question where the offsets were and loopholes, too. >> they haven't been in office for the last four years. >> covered ground from libya to taxes to abortion. so i think people got a vigorous and broad debate. >> go ahead, chris. >> let's take it for what it is. vice presidential debates like the halftime show at the super bowl. every once in a while you get a wardrobe malfunction and we talk about it for a while. mostly madonna and the guy on the tight rope and we forget it about it the next day. next week we will be talking about the presidential debate. main show. i can't wait for it. >> that smile monday teenage i think joe biden had a mouth malfunction smiling at all the wrong points. >> it's a beautiful smile, lawyer. you -- laura, you can never smile too much. >> laura: up next on the rundown, vice president under fire for claiming that the president and he did not know that the security was requested for libya. later, did congressman ryan make his economic case to undecided voters? lou dobbs will be here to tell us about that upcoming. [ male announcer ] how do you measure happiness? by the armful? by the barrelful? the carful? how about...by the bowlful? campbell's soups give you nutrition, energy, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. >> laura: in the impact segment tonight the obama administration's narrative continues to fall apart. vice president biden claimed that he and the president didn't know about the request for more security there. white house press secretary jay carney was asked about this today by fox news ed henry. you are saying from this podium that the president and vice president have never been briefed about the fact that more security was needed in benghazi you? are saying they were never in the presidential daily briefing never briefed? >> what i'm saying is that matters of security personnel are appropriately discussed and decided upon at the state department by those responsible for it. >> joining us now from new york is congressman jason chafe fete, favor you heard some blockbuster testimony this week on capitol hill. what was your reaction, first to what the vice president said last night number one that they didn't know of any security requests, number two, blaming the intelligence community for this idea that it was a spontaneous protest that got out of control? >> it was absolutely shocking for the vice president to admit outloud that he had no idea what was going on. ignorance is hardly a defense. the fact is there were over 230 security incidents there in libya. our consulate there in benghazi had been bombed twice. now, where else in the world are you aware of any consulate or embassy having been bombed twice. it's libya. it's 9/11. the british ambassador had an assassination attempt. and then the request for personnel continues to go forward to the administration is not only denied, they reduced the security personnel profile there in libya. this is a place where the british pulled out. there were actually al qaeda flags flying above government buildings. when i went to libya last saturday. i was there most of the day. not a single person ever mentioned a video. so this administration continues to have a lot of questions that go unanswered, in fact, compounded by the fact that the white house, the vice president, they continue -- they are just not being straight with the american people. they have a lot to answer for. >> laura: congressman chaffetz do you think that the vice president lied. >> he t. could be that he was never in the loop. he is vice president of the united states. i don't think ignorance is a good defense. i think the reality is they should have known. good leadership, a good president should be saying my goodness we were bombed in libya twice? what are we doing to improve security there. not just sit lack and wait and see. we have four people killed. we haven't had a u.s. ambassador killed overseas since the 1970s. >> laura: congressman, the "the washington post" today is reporting that political chaos in libya today hammers the u.s. probe of the deadly benghazi attacks. and basically saying that when you call over, when we call over to officials in libya, no one is answering the phone. so, it's more than a month later, and apparently, according to this article, we have made very little progress because of the situation on the ground which begs the question if it's difficult on the ground now, presumably it was difficult on the ground before september 11th, correct? >> on september 1st, the interior minister there in libya issued a high alert. it's the maximum alert they can. ambassador stevens sent that cable to washington, d.c. that is on september 1st. in fact, the memo went out september 4th. how is it a week before nobody is paying attention to washington, d.c. saying oh my goodness. there is problems. let's get these people some more assets. these people need some more help. >> laura: what about the republicans voting for more security against the embassies? paul ryan got stung with that last night against joe biden. was that true or not? >> in the last five years the state department budget has increased 118%. this is a question about priorities. in fact, under testimony, we asked charlene lamb, who is in charge of the embassies and security, and we asked her, was there denial of more personnel in libya a result of a lack of funding? she said. no it's a red herring. something they put out there as a strawman to try to distract. when your budget is increased 118% over five years you have to make priorities, you have to make choices. we have over 6,000 private contractors in baghdad and, yet, we barely have two dozen in libya. >> laura: are you going to bring susan rice to capitol hill to testify. >> i want to hear from the president. i want to hear from secretary clinton. i want to hear from ambassador rice and i want the intelligence community to be able to voice this out because i think the administration should have known beforehand that this was going to happen. >> laura: congressman, thank you so much. directly ahead, things got prettied heated last night when the candidates discussed afghanistan. herald -- geraldo is going to way. in did martha raddatz bring up the abortion issue last night to reignite the war on women debate? those reports after these messages. >> laura: in the fridays with geraldo segment tonight, the candidates spent a considerable amount of time last night on foreign policy issues. and things got pretty tense while the discussion moved to afghanistan. >> we are sending fewer people to the front to fight them. >> that's right, beast because that's the afghan responsibility. we have trained them. >> not in the east. >> let's move to another war. >> not in the east. >> the most dangerous place in the world. >> that's why we don't want to send fewer people. >> that's why we should send americans in to do the jobs -- you would rather americans be doing the job. >> we are already sending americans to do the job but fewer of them. >> that's right, we are sending in more afghans to do the job. >> laura: joining me now from new york is fox news anchor geraldo rivera. and geraldo, before we get to afghanistan, i want to get your take on the obama campaign's response first to the libya attack. we were just discussing that in the previous segment and now intelligence community folks, former cia director general hayden came out strong against biden throwing the intelligence community under the bus because the intel people said hey, don't look at us. we never said we never briefed congress on this idea it was spontaneous protest that went awry. last nighted by den actually said that at the debate. >> you know, i think that -- let's first of all put the focus on paul ryan because i really believe what paul ryan needed to do last night on this whole issue of benghazi gate, laura was to channel ed henry. the same way our white house correspondent was busting jay carney today at that press briefing. you know, when did you find out about the request for additional security there? are you saying that you were never briefed? i needed to see paul ryan advance that conversation. instead, the issue was raised, and it was almost as if it went in passing. it happened, there was the moment but i didn't see the congressman challenge the vice president on either the lack of security or more importantly, once he he had had that exchange on security, on what they knew and when they knew it about the true nature of those hideous attacks, laura. >> laura: and geraldo, joe biden getting back to my point did say the intel community had floated this idea that it was a protest. of course, the intel community saying no, no. we didn't say that it seems like there is internal communication confusion inside the white house communication because people are getting thrown under the bus and former cia chiefs say this is incredibly demoralizing to people and factually doesn't look like it's correct here. >> that goes back to my point here. if we are speaking about the impact of the vice presidential debate on the presidential elections that was where paul ryan needed to make his stand. here you have because i can argue that basically what paul ryan and joe bide den discussed about afghanistan, we go d.o. back to that if you want about syria, about iran and the nukes, about bilateral relations with israel. i would argue the two sides, the republic and democrat were basically in sync more or less on those other issues. it is only benghazi gate where you have this glaring distinction where you have an administration that is trying to rewrite history after they went out and really were less than candid with the american people. i think he needed to stand right there and say this is benghazi gate. mr. vice president. you are not giving us. >> laura: you are not answering questions. i think that governor romney can do that he can pick up the ball but i think they have to hammer it. >> laura: it's taking them a while. all right, geraldo. you wrote a column last night for fox news about the debate which i enjoyed. there is one part of it that i have to nitpick with you about. you are talking about paul ryan has the biggest blue eyes and the biggest nose in politics. his shirt seemed too big for his neck. and he had the look of a rookie gamely stepping up to play in the big leagues. the biggest nose in politics? i mean, what? is that accurate? i don't know if it is. >> it takes one to know one first of all, laura. as an expert in noses, i was merely remarking about his physical features. i go on to say the next sentence what a great job he did. he held his own against the wiley old veteran maybe a mustache would work. >> laura: i just thought it was funny great to see you. >> you too. >> laura: paul ryan hammered the obama administration last night for four years of failed economic policy. was the congressman able to make his observe case to the voters? lou dobbs will tell us. later is the manufactured war on women debate making a comeback? we'll have a debate about it we hope you stay tuned to those reports. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... advanced headlights... and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪ >> laura: in the lou's the boss segment tonight, the candidates laid out two very different visions to fix the economy. whiled by continue wants to raise the taxes on the so-called rich. paul ryan called for this plan. >> cut taxes by 20% and preserve important preferences for middle class taxpayers. >> not mathematically possible. >> it is mathematically possible. it's been done before. it is precisely what we are proposing. >> it's never been done before. >> it has been proposed. taxes increase. >> now you are jack kennedy. >> when ryan's proposal end up resonating with independent voters with us is