Politics

When the vice presidential debate turned to health care Thursday night, it took the candidates into the factual minefield of Medicare. Audie Cornish talks with health policy correspondent Julie Rovner, who points out a few liberties that were taken during the debate.

"With all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey," Vice President Biden said during Thursday's debate as he challenged Rep. Paul Ryan's assertion that U.S. foreign policy has unraveled under President Obama.

A little later in the debate, Biden said Ryan's criticisms were "a bunch of stuff" — and when moderator Martha Raddatz asked "what does that mean?" he said, "we Irish call it malarkey."

Biden's use of the word has many asking: Where does it come from?

"U.S. consumer sentiment unexpectedly rose to its highest in five years in October as consumers became more optimistic about the economy in a possible boost to President Obama's reelection hopes," Reuters reports.

Transcript

CELESTE HEADLEE, HOST:

This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Celeste Headlee. Michel Martin is away. Coming up, President Obama honored late labor and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez earlier this week but a new book questions whether the full story of his life and legacy isn't perhaps more complicated. That's in a moment.

If, indeed, children are our future, as so many like to say, what might that future look like, given the many challenges our children face: declining resources for education, intervention when they are victimized by predators, and nutrition programs, neighborhoods that are unsafe and so much more.  With an election just a few weeks away, the public policy debate appears to be ignoring this critically important but voiceless constituency.

A team of NPR correspondents joins Renee Montagne to give Thursday night's vice presidential debate a "Close Read." The discussion will take up the foreign and domestic issues covered in the debate with analysis and fact checking. Reporters include: John Ydstie, Julie Rovner, Michele Kelemen, Larry Abramson and Tom Bowman.