10 things you need to know today: October 13, 2012

A group of Pakistani children pray for Malala Yousufzai (the 14-year-old girl who was shot by the Taliban) in Karachi, on Oct.12. — (Image credit: AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

1. DEMS DELIGHT IN BIDEN'S BRAVADO; GOP RIPS HIM

After Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan sparred Thursday night in their first and only debate, pundits on both ends of the political spectrum found ways to call victory for their side and to criticize their opponents. Joe Biden's persistently animated performance gave Democrats a much-needed confidence boost in the wake of President Obama's timid debating, while Republicans were quick to attack Biden's aggressive tactics and repeated smirks as rude and condescending. As the post-debate commentary continues to spin, both the Obama-Biden and Romney-Ryan tickets are looking ahead to the second presidential debate, which will take place on Tuesday, October 16. [ABC News]

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Latest Videos FromThe Week

Watch full video here:

The federal budget deficit topped $1 trillion — it was $1.089 trillion, to be exact — for the fourth year in a row, "highlighting the severe fiscal challenges President Obama or Republican challenger Mitt Romney will face during the next four-year term in the White House." (The deficit is actually down from $1.297 trillion last year, the U.S. Treasury said.) Romney says he would tackle the problem with "revenue-neutral" changes to the tax code and spending cuts that he believes will spur growth. Obama wants a mix of tax increases and spending cuts. [Wall Street Journal]

Mitt Romney on Friday accused the Obama administration of attempting to "mislead the American public" over the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. Seizing on Vice President Joe Biden's claim at the debate the previous night that "we weren't told" that the consulate wanted additional security, Romney said Biden had "directly contradicted the sworn testimony of State Department officials." The White House dismissed the claim, saying Biden was referring to himself and the president, not the State Department, which did indeed receive and reject the consulate's requests for more security. Analysts say the Romney campaign is using the Obama administration's muddled response to the crisis to chip away at Obama's perceived advantage in foreign policy. [The New York Times]

Pakistani officials say they've arrested several suspects in connection with the shooting earlier this week of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai. The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for the brutal attack, which left the young girl in serious condition at a military hospital. Doctors were able to remove a bullet near her spine on Wednesday, but she remains unconscious and on a ventilator. Malala, who began speaking out against the Taliban at age 11, has long been a target of the militant group, which promised to "finish this chapter" should she make a full recovery. [Voice of America]

The defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals stormed back from a six-run deficit to beat the Washington Nationals 9-7 in a win-or-go-home Game 5 of the National League Division Series Friday night. No other baseball team in history has come back from more than four runs down to win "in this sort of ultimate pressure situation." Well, "we never quit," said the Cards' Yadier Molina. "That's our rule." The Cardinals now face the San Francisco Giants in the National League Championship Series. In the American League, the New York Yankees will face off against the Detroit Tigers in the next round. [Associated Press]

Elizabeth Escalona, a 23-year-old Texas mother of five on trial for beating her 2-year-old daughter and gluing her hands to a wall, was sentenced to 99 years in prison on Friday. In July, Escalona pleaded guilty to felony injury to a child, for attacking her daughter in September 2011 over potty training problems. Escalona's family — which now cares for all five of the children — had begged for leniency, but prosecutors painted the young mother as a woman with a history of violence, who had threatened to kill her mother, and was a previously a member of a gang. Escalona will not be eligible for parole for 30 years. Her defense attorney plans to appeal. [MyFox8]

Peter Berg the writer-director of the movie-turned-TV-series Friday Night Lights, wrote a letter, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, to the campaign of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Friday, demanding that Romney stop using the slogan "Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can't Lose." — from the movie and TV show — at his campaign events. "Your politics and campaign are clearly not aligned with the themes we portrayed in our series," Berg wrote. [The Hollywood Reporter]