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Vice President Joe Biden and GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan engaged in a memorable and highly combative debate Thursday night in Danville, Kentucky. It's the only time the two men, who occupy the second spots on their party's presidential tickets, will square off before the election.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Next, let's follow up on today's surprise winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. In effect, it went to most of a continent, the European Union. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it was a decision that was long overdue considering the EU's role in advancing and maintaining peace since World War II. Here's the chairman of the Nobel Committee, Thorbjoern Jagland.

THORBJOERN JAGLAND: The stabilizing part played by the European Union has helped to transform most of Europe from a continental war to a continental peace.

Neither candidate let his opponent get away with much of anything during the vice presidential debate Thursday night.

The tabletop discussion between Vice President Biden and Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin showcased their clear differences over policy. The two disagreed about nearly every issue that came up, whether it was military posture, tax policy or abortion.

Many of these differences were expressed in negative, sometimes surprisingly personal terms.

Atmospherically, the vice presidential debate pitted old versus new. Vice President Joe Biden lives in a world where no lily goes ungilded, and every 'lative is super. Rep. Paul Ryan speeds through campaigning energetically, like the heroic train in the new movie Atlas Got Cut Using the P90X Workout.

And the moderator Martha Raddatz? She came out guns blazing. No avuncular, passive Jim Lehrer she.

As PolitiFact.com writes, "the vice presidential debate Thursday night began on a somber note, then quickly turned to lively attacks — with both candidates stretching the truth."

Vice President Biden and his Republican opponent, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, had a lively debate at Centre College in Danville, Ky., this evening — one marked by Biden's aggressive challenges to many of the Republican vice presidential nominee's claims and Ryan's oft-repeated message that the Obama-Biden administration's policies aren't working.

The discussion was steered by ABC News' Martha Raddatz. It's the only vice presidential debate of the campaign.

There's new information on the ongoing outbreak of a rare meningitis caused by a fungus that somehow got into a steroid drug. Federal officials now say the drug got injected into 14,000 patients — 1,000 more than earlier thought.

A few terms and figures became flash points for later discussion in the first presidential debate between President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. From Simpson-Bowles (which was mentioned at least eight times) to the much-discussed $716 billion cut in Medicare, the presidential debate and the wider campaign have featured a growing list of devilish details that could use a good footnote. Here's a closer look at a few of these disputed terms that are likely to come up in the vice-presidential debate.