The VP Debate and Foreign Affairs

Thursday’s vice-presidential debate in Danville, Kentucky, will likely cover a lot of ground.

Both domestic issues and foreign policy are on the agenda in theory.

Republican VP candidate, Paul Ryan, will probably want to focus on the economy.

Vice President Joe Biden, on the other hand, may play up his hands-on experience.

Biden is, and Ryan might be, just a heartbeat away from the presidency.

So how ready is either man to deal with the nation’s foreign and defense policies, and national security?

Biden has plenty of experience in talking about foreign affairs from his years in the Senate, and from the last four years as VP.

Ted Bromund, a senior research fellow at the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, says that might be a mixed blessing in a debate, since Biden has been on the wrong side of several issues.

Paul Ryan on the other hand, says Bromund, has a clear vision of American exceptionalism and economic freedom for the world.

James Traub, a fellow at the Center on International Cooperation, says that’s mostly rhetoric, and that he expects Joe Biden to counter that by saying it’s all well and good, but the world is complex, and in the real world, words don’t take you far.