Greensboro, NC -- UNC Greensboro political science professor Thom Little and Dr. Omar Ali watched the vice-presidential debate from the News 2 Information Center. They participated in a live web chat, and then shared their insight during the 11:00 pm newscast.
Little said, "I didn't see a clear winner. They did what they had to do. Biden needed to stop the bleeding from last week's debate. I think he did that, fired up the base, he stopped the bleeding. I think Ryan had to show that he is ready for primetime. I think he did that."
Dr. Ali agreed, "I think both of them did what they needed to do. I think that they in some ways did fire up their bases. I think that what they left hanging is the issue of undecided voters, their not sure where they're going to go, and of course we'll find out soon."
They also talked about some of the topics that may be the highlights of the debate discussion in the days to come. Little said, "I think one thing they're going to be talking about is Biden's aggressiveness. I don't know if its going to help him or hurt him. Clearly, he wanted to come out and say I have the assertiveness that President Obama lacked last week. So maybe his humor, his tone and making light of things, that I think we'll be talking about that." Ali added another main point may be Biden's condescending tone, that may have come across to some as disrespectful.
Tanya Rivera asked Dr. Ali if he thought this debate would have a major impact on the election. He said, "No, this was in some ways a very unique vice-presidential debate. Mostly people don't tune in. But this one, many, many people will have tuned in and the reason why is, what's happening is you have these two major party candidates and they haven't in some ways won over enough American people to win the election and so the undecided are going to make the difference on election day."
To watch the full interview, click play in the video window.
WFMY News 2