People who watched last night’s vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on their Xbox video game systems overwhelmingly favored the incumbent, according to results of Microsoft’s real-time polling of the face-off.
Among undecided voters 44.1 percent said Biden won the debate, while 22.9 percent went with Ryan. Perhaps more assuring to the Democratic ticket is the result that 72 percent of respondents felt that Biden’s statements were more truthful than Ryan’s.
The debate, moderated by ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, featured several testy segments in which Biden and Ryan bickered over the war in Afghanistan, the terrorist attack last month on a U.S. consulate in Libya, unemployment and the future of federal entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. During the debate, viewers watching on Microsoft’s Xbox Live service received 26 questions asking their opinions on the topics and which candidate they thought was winning.
Over 800,000 responses were submitted, with each question garnering at least 30,000 replies, according to a Microsoft news release.
Only six percent of Xbox users said they were still undecided with just over three weeks until Election Day. Of those, however, 53.7 percent said Biden was better suited than Ryan to step in as president if needed.
Much was made in the Xbox polling of Raddatz’s penultimate question, in which she asked the candidates to state what impact their religion would play in their approach toward abortion and reproductive health. Biden and Ryan are both practicing Catholics, and last night’s debate was the first time in U.S. history that a general-election debate has featured two Catholic candidates.
“I don’t see how a person can separate their public life from their private life or from their faith,” Ryan said. “My faith informs me about how to take care of the vulnerable, of how to make sure that people have a chance in life.” The Wisconsin Republican then launched into a statement in which he called the Democratic Party’s support for abortion rights “extreme.”
Biden, meanwhile, also said he defined himself through his religious belief, though on a more personal note than Ryan. “With regard to abortion, I accept my church’s position on abortion as a — what we call a de fide doctrine,” Biden said. “Life begins at conception in the church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life. But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews, and I just refuse to impose that on others, unlike my friend here, the congressman.”
But while the candidates hemmed and hawed over Catholic ideology, a vast majority of Xbox users gave it little thought. Seventy percent of respondents said they do not consider a candidate’s religion when casting their ballots.
