US Vice President Joe Biden went on the attack against Republican challenger Paul Ryan in a lively debate overnight.
He aggressively defended the Obama administration's economic and foreign policies, in an attempt to regain momentum in the White House race.
Mr Biden was looking for a Democratic rebound after President Barack Obama's poor debate performance last week.
However, the younger and less experienced Mr Ryan held his own in a series of testy exchanges.
First estimates of who prevailed at the debate in Kentucky were split.
A CBS News survey of undecided voters showed Mr Biden as the winner by 50% to 31%, while a CNN poll of debate watchers scored Mr Ryan the victor by 48% to 44%.
The vice presidential candidates in the 6 November election frequently interrupted each other, talking at the same time and sometimes staring at each other in disbelief.
Mr Biden grinned and laughed sarcastically at times, dismissing the Wisconsin congressman's answers.
"With all due respect, that is a bunch of malarkey," Mr Biden said when Mr Ryan accused the White House of projecting an image of US weakness to the world.
He repeatedly provided the passion that Mr Obama was criticised for lacking in last week's debate with Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
The White House race shifted in Mr Romney's favour after that encounter in Denver.
He has taken the lead in some national polls with less than four weeks before the election.
A Reuters-Ipsos online tracking poll before Thursday's debate showed Mr Romney beating Mr Obama by 47% to 44%.
"Mr Vice President, I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think people would be better served if we don't keep interrupting each other," Mr Ryan said at one point.
"Well, don't take all the four minutes then," Mr Biden responded.
He later added: "I don't know what world this guy's living in."
Mr Obama, who watched the debate on Air Force One while returning from a campaign trip, jogged out to meet reporters after landing and praised his number two.
"I thought Joe Biden did terrific tonight. I could not be prouder of him. He made a very strong case," Mr Obama said.
Mr Romney called Mr Ryan to congratulate him after the debate.
Mr Biden portrayed Mr Ryan, the 42-year-old chairman of the House Budget Committee, as out of step with working Americans.
He claimed that supporting a budget plan that slashes government spending and creates a "voucher" system for the popular Medicare healthcare programme for seniors was out of step.
"It will not keep pace with healthcare costs. Because if it did keep pace with healthcare costs, there would be no savings," Mr Biden said.
"We will be no part of a voucher program or the privatisation of Social Security."
Mr Ryan said Democrats had not put a credible solution on the table to address the long-range fiscal problems for Medicare.
"He'll say all these things to try and scare people," he said.
At one point, Mr Ryan made reference to how President John F Kennedy, a Democrat, had lowered tax rates. "Oh, now you're Jack Kennedy?" Mr Biden asked.
Mr Ryan pointed out that he and Mr Biden were from similar towns - he is from Janesville, Wisconsin, and Mr Biden from Scranton, Pennsylvania - and said unemployment had gone up in Scranton since Mr Obama took office.
"That's how it's going all around America," Mr Ryan said. Mr Biden said Mr Ryan had not read the recent statistics showing unemployment dropping to 7.8% nationally in September.
"That's not how it's going. It's going down," he said.
On foreign policy, Mr Ryan said Americans were seeing the "unravelling" of President Obama's approach, while Mr Biden attacked Mr Romney for holding a news conference on Libya last month just after the US diplomatic compound was attacked and the ambassador killed.
Mr Ryan said the Obama administration had given confusing information about the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, which killed US Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
"It took the president two weeks to acknowledge that this was a terrorist attack," the Wisconsin congressman said.
Mr Biden, 69, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committees, pointed out the lack of international experience on the Romney-Ryan ticket.
He vowed that the Obama administration would find the perpetrators of the attack and rectify mistakes in security at the diplomatic mission.
The two candidates sat across from each other at a table but the proximity did not lessen the conflict.
Mr Ryan defended Romney's secretly recorded video condemning the "47%" of the electorate that he said was dependent on government and considered themselves victims, calling it a mistake.
The Republican joked that the gaffe-prone Mr Biden should understand that "sometimes the words don't always come out the right way".
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