An aggressive Vice President Joe Biden went after Rep. Paul Ryan on the economy, taxes, foreign policy and more throughout their 90-minute debate in Danville, Ky., on Thursday night.  

Frequently scoffing and smiling at Ryan's claims, Biden several times explicitly cast doubt on the GOPer's veracity and command of the facts. 

Unprovoked, Biden brought up Mitt Romney's devastating 47% remarks, in which the White House hopeful dismissed nearly half of the electorate as government moochers—and which President Obama failed to mention in his own debate last week.

"It shouldn't be surprising for a guy who says 47% of the American people are unwilling to take responsibility of their own lives," said Biden. "My friend [Paul Ryan] recently said in a speech in Washington said 30% of the American people are takers. These people are my mom and dad, the people I grew up with, my neighbors. They pay more effective tax than Gov. Romney pays in his federal income tax. They are elderly people who in fact are living off of Social Security. They are veterans who are fighting in Afghanistan right now who are not quote, not paying taxes."

WATCH THE CLIP ABOVE OF BIDEN'S 47% ATTACK

That testified to a combative approach throughout from the vice president, who, in a likely successful effort to re-enthuse Democrats after Obama's limp performance last week, repeatedly sought to challenge Ryan on everything from social programs to jobs to national security.

Of course, Ryan got a zinger of his own in when he referred to the interruption-laden debate.

"I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think people would be better served if we don't interrupt each other," Ryan said, referring to President Obama's poor debate performance last week.

The high-stakes faceoff kicked off with a discussion of the deadly attacks at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, with Ryan criticizing Obama's initial unwillingness to call the violence terrorism.

Biden promised to pursue the attackers, and vowed that any mistakes in the original assessment of the attack would "not be made again." He also ripped Ryan for not laying out a clear plan on foreign policy.

At one point, Biden declared that Ryan was full of "malarkey" after the Republican accused the president of advocating "devastating defense cuts."

The two also traded blows on Iran, with Ryan insisting the U.S. was failing to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Biden countered by insisting that his team has implemented the "most crippling sanctions in the history of sanctions."

The debate got personal —and serious—when moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC News asked the two candidates how their Catholic faith has played into their personal views on abortion.

Biden said his religion teaches him that life begins at conception, but would not impose his beliefs on all Americans. "I do not believe we have the right to tell people, women, they can't control their body," the former Delaware senator said.

Ryan said he is against abortion, but would include exceptions in cases of incest, rape or when the life of the mother is at risk. 

One of the night's most memorable lines came during a discussion of tax policy. Ryan insisted that Mitt Romney could make good on his promises to lower tax rates without increasing the deficit.

"Not mathematically possible," Biden quipped. "It is mathematically possible," Ryan insisted. "Jack Kennedy lowered taxes and raised revenue."

Biden shot back, "Oh, now you're Jack Kennedy?" That evoked memories of the famous moment in the 1988 vice presidential debate in which Lloyd Bentsen schooled Dan Quayle. After Quayle brought up JFK, Bentsen replied: "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."

In a low-key and often wonkish presidential debate on Wednesday, Mitt Romney distanced himself from his own plans, but received only intermittent push-back from a subdued President Obama.

Obama started out strong at the Denver debate, nipping at Mitt Romney for the Republican's tax plan, which would reportedly cut $5 trillion in tax revenue and add $2 trillion in military spending. Obama insisted the move would pulverize middle-class families or balloon the deficit.

"How we pay for that, reduce the deficit and make the investments that we need to make without dumping those costs on to middle-class Americans, I think is one of the central questions of the campaign," the president said.

Romney, however, insisted that he doesn't have a $5 trillion tax cut in his plan, and that he won't reduce the taxes paid by the wealthiest Americans. On the stump, Romney has pushed to lower everyone's tax rates by 20%, an amount independent groups say will reduce federal revenue by $5 trillion over the next decade.

Obama charged that for the past year-and-half, his opponent has been running on such a tax plan and now his "big, bold idea is 'never mind.'" 

On Medicare, Obama noted that although Romney's plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system might not affect current seniors, it would affect those who'll soon be eligible for the program. "If you're 54 or 55, you might want to listen because this might affect you," he said.

Obama argued that Romney has yet to lay out concrete plans on taxes, healthcare and Wall Street reform. "And at some point I think the American people have to ask themselves is the reason that Governor Romney is keeping all these plans to replace secret because they're too good?"

While there was no knockout moment, the tables seemed to turn in the GOPer's favor when Romney insisted the president's policies have stunted job growth and a second term in the White House for Obama would kill more jobs. He ripped Obama's plan to repeal tax cuts for small businesses and  referenced Vice President Joe Biden's gaffe this week, saying "Under the president's policies, middle-income Americans have been buried."

Romney, appearing poised and confident, argued that health insurance costs have gone up, gas prices have doubled, costs of food have skyrocketed and the middle class has been crushed under Obama.

"You raised taxes and you killed jobs," Romney declared.

Throughout most of the evening, Romney was the clear aggressor, seizing control of the debate at several moments and interrupting moderator Jim Lehrer, while the president often seemed somewhat listless as he looked down at his podium.

Richard Wolffe, executive editor of MSNBC.com, said the cards fell in Romney's favor, but that in the end, Romney may not have achieved everything he needed to.

"I think the GOP is going to be delighted with Romney because it's all small bore. They want him to rough up the President and he did. Sadly for the GOP, he missed the real target: telling voters what he really stands for. Especially about jobs," Wolffe wrote on MSNBC.com.
 
Romney's big push comes as polls show him behind in several battleground states.

Supreme Court expert Jeffrey Toobin joined The Last Word host Lawrence O'Donnell Monday night to discuss a subject that hasn't received the attention it deserves: the election's massive implications for the high court.

Toobin, a writer for The New Yorker, predicted that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal who is 79, likely will step down if Obama wins a second term, because it would guarantee her place would be filled by a like-minded individual.

Toobin pointed out that four of the nine justices are in their 70s, which may mean the court could be shaken up if elderly judges retire or pass away.  Currently, the court is finely balanced between five right-leaning justices and four left-leaning justices. 

On the flip side, Toobin predicted that if Ginsburg, the eldest justice, were forced to leave during a Mitt Romney presidency, Roe vs. Wade—which keeps abortion legal—would likely be overturned. 

The court is expected to hear cases this term on voting rights, gay marriage, and affirmative action, other other crucial issues.

With just less than a week before the first presidential debate, it looks like Mitt Romney is trying to tamp down expectations—big time. 

Romney's senior adviser Beth Myers sent a memo to surrogates on Thursday, writing, "It's clear that President Obama will use his ample rhetorical gifts and debating experience to one end: attacking Mitt Romney. Since he won't, and can't talk about his record, he'll talk about Mitt Romney. We fully expect a 90-minute attack ad aimed at tearing down his opponent. "

She continued, “This will be the eighth one-on-one presidential debate of his political career. For Mitt Romney, it will be his first."

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell said Republicans are "desperately trying to lower expectations for Mitt Romney in the debate to the point where if he can just stay standing for the 90 minutes it will be considered a victory."

MSNBC political commentator Krystal Ball agreed, arguing the real challenge for Romney is for him to "not look scared, not look defensive." 

O'Donnell added that in presidential debates the pressure is usually on the incumbent to defend the last four years of their term, whereas in this year's face-off, 100 percent of the pressure is on Romney and how he handles the 47 percent question. 

In a stirring but sober speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night, an emphatic President Obama cast himself as a determined leader who kept his promises to Americans, but who needs four more years to finish the job and to stop Mitt Romney from taking the country backwards.

“I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick or easy. I never have," Obama told a packed audience in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he officially accepted the nod for a second presidential term. "You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth. And the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades. It will require common effort, shared responsibility, and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one."

Obama, introduced by his wife Michelle Obama, stressed that Americans are faced with a choice—"two different paths for America"—rather than the election being a referendum on his presidency so far. 

Obama painted a picture of what a second term  would look like.

He promised to reduce the deficit by more than $4 trillion over the next decade and laid out specific goals on manufacturing, energy, education, national security. His plan includes creating one million new manufacturing jobs by the end of 2012, cutting the growth of college tuition in half over the next decade, recruiting 100,000 new teachers and investing in the economy with the money the government is no longer spending on war.

He touted what he's done in the last four years, including cutting taxes for the middle class and small businesses, reviving the auto industry, creating half a million manufacturing jobs, ending the war in Iraq and winding down the war in Afghanistan. And of course, killing Osama bin Laden. 

The president, who is in a tight race with Romney in national polls, joined Vice President Joe Biden in blasting his opponent as weak on foreign policy, an ally of Wall Street, and a man who wants to gut education, turn Medicare into a voucher system and eliminate health insurance for millions of Americans who are poor, disabled or elderly.  

He dinged Romney for not releasing concrete plans on how he'd fix America. At the RNC in Tampa, he said, GOPers were "more than happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with America, but they didn't have much to say about how they'd make it right. They want your vote but they don't want you to know their plan." 

The president argued that his plan, on the other hand, "may be harder, but it leads to a better place." He continued: "And I’m asking you to choose that future. I’m asking you to rally around a set of goals for your country—goals in manufacturing, energy, education, national security, and the deficit; a real, achievable plan that will lead to new jobs, more opportunity, and rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation. That’s what we can do in the next four years, and that is why I’m running for a second term as President of the United States.”

He ended his speech by reemphasizing that Americans have a choice.

"If you turn away now—if you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought for isn’t possible … well, change will not happen. If you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, then other voices will fill the void: lobbyists and special interests; the people with the $10 million checks who are trying to buy this election and those who are making it harder for you to vote; Washington politicians who want to decide who you can marry, or control health care choices that women should make for themselves."

"Only you can make sure that doesn’t happen. Only you have the power to move us forward."