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Neither candidate let his opponent get away with much of anything during the vice presidential debate Thursday night.

The tabletop discussion between Vice President Biden and Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin showcased their clear differences over policy. The two disagreed about nearly every issue that came up, whether it was military posture, tax policy or abortion.

Many of these differences were expressed in negative, sometimes surprisingly personal terms.

Atmospherically, the vice presidential debate pitted old versus new. Vice President Joe Biden lives in a world where no lily goes ungilded, and every 'lative is super. Rep. Paul Ryan speeds through campaigning energetically, like the heroic train in the new movie Atlas Got Cut Using the P90X Workout.

And the moderator Martha Raddatz? She came out guns blazing. No avuncular, passive Jim Lehrer she.

A few terms and figures became flash points for later discussion in the first presidential debate between President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. From Simpson-Bowles (which was mentioned at least eight times) to the much-discussed $716 billion cut in Medicare, the presidential debate and the wider campaign have featured a growing list of devilish details that could use a good footnote. Here's a closer look at a few of these disputed terms that are likely to come up in the vice-presidential debate.

Another day, another editorial board, another controversial remark for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. On Wednesday, it was abortion. On Thursday, health care.

If you're looking for something else to do while watching or listening to tonight's 90-minute vice presidential debate, there's always debate bingo.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

The CDC announced today that as many as 14,000 people have been exposed to the potentially contaminated steroid treatments. And we're going to hear now about the massive effort under way to identify, notify and, if need be, treat them.

Dr. Rachel Smith is an epidemic intelligence service officer at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. And she says the vast majority of those exposed have now been contacted.

Mitt Romney once again sparked controversy over his views on health care in an editorial board interview with the Columbus Dispatch on Thursday. Romney said: "We don't have a setting across this country where if you don't have insurance, we just say to you, 'Tough luck, you're going to die when you have your heart attack.'" But health policy analysts noted a number of studies showing that people without health insurance do worse than the insured when they get sick and are more likely to die. Robert Siegel talks with Julie Rovner.

The tainted drug believed to have caused 170 cases of rare fungal meningitis and 14 deaths came from a so-called "compounding pharmacy" in Massachusetts. But this is no corner drugstore. It's one of dozens of industrial-scale companies that mix and ship drugs nationally. They operate under old-fashioned rules that require pharmacies to custom-mix medications for individual patients on a prescription-by-prescription basis. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration largely leaves regulation of these pharmacies to each of the 50 states but now many experts say it has to change.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

The housing market may well play a role in tonight's debate and we got word today that foreclosure activity declined to a five-year low in September. The website RealtyTrac says the national average for the number of default notices, auctions and repossessions declined 7 percent month over month. Still, as NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports, that does not mean the entire country is seeing declines.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Yesterday on the program we reported on Paul Ryan's debating style. We're going to do the same now for his opponent, Vice President Biden, who's an experienced debater. Here's NPR's Brian Naylor.