Popcorn, Politics and Cannonballs
You have to hand it to Joe Biden, he knows how to draw attention to himself. There is a reasonable amount of chatter on the internet not only about the depth of the impending vice presidential debate but the lurking possibility that some Monty Python type of moment will unfold before the eyes of the nation. It is hopelessly preposterous not to consider the potential of a cringe worthy moment occurring. Biden’s presence brings the very real possibility of some magnificent folly. The man is a walking conversation starter.
This debate may have been a nonstarter with the masses had things not gone so horribly wrong for Obama when Romney expeditiously dismantled him in their debate last week. Obama’s lack of performance left no doubt that the impending debate puts Joe Biden’s performance front and center.
The Democrats are pinning their hopes on a turnaround at this event. I imagine they are cringing a bit in closed circles considering who they are relying on. Ryan and Romney have more to lose. They have the momentum and it is Ryan’s job to not only keep that momentum but to present a steadying force behind Romney and sell himself as a national voice of reason.
The popular perception is that Joe Biden is completely outclassed intellectually by Paul Ryan. Biden doesn’t care what the perception is. He will go into attack mode like an angry honey badger on each point delivered by Romney in the Presidential debate. Ryan mentioned as much in an interview with The Weekly Standard, “I expect the vice president to come at me like a cannonball.” While I agree with Ryan’s assessment, given Biden’s historical missteps I cannot help but ponder whether he will take that comment literally and show up in his cape and leotards as Cannonball Man.
Ryan will enter his wonky, blue eyed assassin mode. He will utilize his Leave it To Beaver charm to employ his encyclopedic grasp on facts and statistics to both attack and eschew the current President, his policies, and administration. Where others fear turning the brain matter of the audience into porridge with a data dump of details, Ryan’s rhythm, cadence, and grasp of the language tends to get people nodding their heads in agreement.
If Biden cannot get traction on his efforts to discredit Romney, he will likely try to steer the conversation to Ryan’s Roadmap for America/Path To Prosperity. It is feasible that this is where he will try to unload multiple zingers. He will hit Ryan on the Medicare similarities between Obama’s plan & Ryan’s budget, the voucher system to Medicaid, Ryan’s marathon comments, and his effort to tie Obama to the closing of the GM plant in Janesville. If the debate tacks this direction, Ryan will have the opportunity to hit the nerve center of a myriad of shortcomings perpetuated by both Obama and Biden.
Expect Biden to fully ignore the directional control attempts by debate moderator Martha Raddatz. Ryan will be respectful and behave like a statesman.
On the surface it would seem an easy debate to handicap. Conventional wisdom would indicate that Ryan will wipe the floor with him. I’m not so certain. Crazy Joe is enough of a wild card that he could turn this debate multiple directions. Biden reminds me of a professional wrestler, big on showmanship and low on reality. Let us not forget that a large audience exists that enjoys watching Atomic Leg Drops and Cobra Choke Holds.
Unfortunately there are no Sun Tzu Seven Considerations to forecast victory in this debate. Foot in Mouth Joe is just too unpredictable. Biden is like Kramer from Seinfeld. He can fall over backward into good luck and unwittingly deliver a gift to the Obama machine. Pick a winner? I’ll take Ryan in a nail biter.
Perhaps the country could use a timeout, intermission, or some levity before getting back to impending November rumble. With that in mind pour an adult beverage, get the popcorn ready, tune into the debate, and keep an eye out for cannonballs.
I expect Biden’s mission is to make Ryan either clearly state his actual positions, or too obviously attempt to occupy Romney’s ambiguously defined middle ground. Of course with Biden, you never know what might happen. The guy has a habit of saying what he’s really thinking.
I read that a day or so ago Axelrod took over Biden’s debate prep because Biden was ”all over the map.”
I expect Biden’s been beaten into submission by now and will do OK.
Watching it now.
You just can’t debate Biden. He’s not smart enough to have a real conversation with and hence it’s not really a debate by traditionally defined standards. I frankly don’t know what to call it, he’s all over the place and I can’t keep up.
But why does he keep smiling so much?
Has Biden totally lost his mind. I have no idea what he is talking about most of the time.
re: #3
Probably for the same reason democrats who are watching at home are smiling.
Biden was rude and classless.
Drunk, brain-dead Biden is disgusting. Piece of shit Biden.
For decades Biden has been at the forefront of the war on drugs, supporting new prohibitions against methamphetamine, Ecstasy, steroids used by athletes, and other new drugs as they became popular. Biden wrote the legislation that created the position of a national “Drug Czar”, and his Anti-Drug Proliferation Act provides 20-year prison sentences for club owners, concert promoters, and people who throw parties in their home if drug use takes place in such settings.
He wholeheartedly supported the actions of federal agents in the Waco standoff, and visibly sneered at witnesses in Senate hearings who questioned whether agents’ acts were beyond the pale. He was a key proponent of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1994, which banned some kinds of semiautomatic rifles, with a sunset provision that allowed these weapons to become legal again ten years later. The law also allocated substantial funds for construction of new prisons, established boot camps for delinquent minors, and brought the death penalty for crimes related to drug dealing, civil-rights related murders, murder of a Federal officer, and acts classified as terrorism.
Biden was a candidate for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination, but his campaign was derailed when he was caught using plagiarized sections from a British politician’s speech in his own speeches, including first-person descriptions that were not applicable to Biden’s life. Biden said he had simply forgotten to mention that he was quoting someone else, and indeed, in numerous earlier and subsequent deliveries of the same anecdotes he did include proper credit.
Generally Sleazy.
@Greg: He has a habit of being a total idiot!! I guess you are correct.
@Greg: Yes they are smiling because they are as wacked out as Biden!! Your correct again.
A few quick impressions:
Biden looked like he was really enjoying himself.
Ryan looked very serious.
The moderator was obviously in the tank for Biden.
No minds or votes will be changed by this debate.
Biden got up on stage and showed Obama how it was done.
The only person that Biden beat was Obama.
We were all mislead about what to expect from all four candidates by the media. Neither Obama, Romney, Biden nor Ryan acted like the people that the press has been describing. Obama could not live up to expectations, Romney, Biden, and Ryan exceeded them.
Obama was not the energetic, articulate, likeable reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
Romney was not cold, heartless, and greedy.
Biden was not a stumbling, bumbling fool.
Ryan was not inexperienced and clueless.
So far Obama has managed to end up the loser in two debates, both times by not being there.
malarkey (noun) Insincere or foolish talk.
Synonyms: applesauce [slang], balderdash, baloney (also boloney), beans, bilge, blah (also blah-blah), blarney, blather, blatherskite, blither, bosh, bull [slang], bunk, bunkum (or buncombe), claptrap, codswallop [British], crapola [slang], crock, drivel, drool, fiddle, fiddle-faddle, fiddlesticks, flannel [British], flapdoodle, folderol (also falderal), folly, foolishness, fudge, garbage, guff, hogwash, hokeypokey, hokum, hoodoo, hooey, horsefeathers [slang], humbug, humbuggery, jazz, nonsense (also malarky), moonshine, muck, nerts [slang], nuts, piffle, poppycock, punk, rot, rubbish, senselessness, silliness, slush, stupidity, taradiddle (or tarradiddle), tommyrot, tosh, trash, trumpery, twaddle
I’ll have to say that this debate was a heck of a lot more entertaining than the previous one.
This format at least prevents the debaters from bringing a pile of “cue cards” to the table.
Not much chance Obama will agree to such a format.
My takeaway from the debate tonight:
Paul Ryan was, as always, polite.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, even by some left leaning pundit’s standards, was rude and snarky
I was especially troubled by the fact that when Ryan was trying to talk about Benghazi, Biden was smiling/smirking as it there was some big joke about Benghazi that the rest of us are not aware of. If there was one subject that Joe Biden needed to treat with the upmost respect, it was the subject of Benghazi. He did not do that.
Most of the time I was unsure what Biden was trying to say other than his repeating the same talking points that Obama has been putting out there. I give him credit for no major gaffes, as Biden is well known for, but his rudeness, and constant interrupting seemed a bit over the top.
The moderator was a disaster. She would allow Biden to blather on and on, but just when Ryan was getting to his end point, she would cut him off. Tomorrow we should have a tally of the minutes given each candidate. I would suspect Crazy Uncle Joe will come out ahead.
Nothing gained for either side. Biden’s rudeness will be hailed by the left, chastized by the right. And to give the Devil his due, at least Obama was not rude to Romney.
A full transcript of tonight’s VP debate.
bidens job was to excite the leftwing base. He did that.
Too bad he lost the debate in the process.
CNBC has it like 56% to 30 something percent in favor of Ryan
CNN poll has it 48%-44% Ryan.
Thanks for driving even more independents our way!
THIS is the left’s idea of a debate. So remember this the next time the whine about a lack of civility here or elsewhere.
My impression was that Biden and Ryan both enjoyed the contest. I didn’t notice a lack of civility on either side.
Biden was RUDE, ARROGANT, DISRESPECTFUL, HATEFUL, ANGRY and a beg fat LIAR who is still repreating Obama’s fully debunked LIES about Libya and the Obama admin’s inability to discern a terrorist attack on 9/11
Biden looked like an ANGRY old drunken fool at a bar who just will not shut up. It was an ugly image, which will probably be remembered as being even worse than Al Gore’s constant “siiiiiighing” durning the debates.
Biden LOST – plain and simple.
And, in the coming days, people will see just how much Biden turned off the Independent voters with his HATEFUL, RUDE and ANGRY lecturing stupidity. Ryan looked informed – cool – calm and well educated. Even better, Ryan looked just AWESOME on foriegn policy which was a pleasant surprise. He was better on foreign policy than Biden, which really shows just how well Ryan prepared.
Joe’s ANGRY, RUDE idocy will be all that is remembered though — and it’ll cost the Obama team even more.
BIDEN lost — plain and simple.
Biden interrupted
Ryan 82 times
Washington Examiner [DC], by Joel Gehrke
http://washingtonexaminer.com/rnc-biden-interrupted-ryan-82-times/article/2510543
Ryan just had it handed to him. That smug little twit might want to give Biden back his foot, once he dislodges it from his ass. Will anyone on the Right have the honesty and perspective to admit this? I’m gonna guess no. The way you know the Right knows they lost is when they start whining about how rude the other guy was, and how the moderator wasn’t on their side.
@Greg:
Then you didn’t watch. Either that or you approve of biden’s behavior. I’m guessing the latter.
@Tom:
Well that proves Ryan won. Biden’s performance was for hatemongers like you, not for anyone else.
CNN/ORC POLL October 3 DEBATE WATCHERS Who Was More Likeable? Ryan 53% Biden 43%
— Peter Hamby (@PeterHambyCNN) October 12, 2012
CNN/ORC POLL October 3 DEBATE WATCHERS Who Was More In Touch With Problems of People Like You? Ryan 51%, Biden 44%
— Peter Hamby (@PeterHambyCNN) October 12, 2012
BREAKING: CNN-ORC post-debate poll of Registered Voters: 48% said Ryan won. 44% said Biden won. Sampling error: +-5%. #CNNDebate
— Sam Feist (@SamFeistCNN) October 12, 2012
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/chris-wallace-shocked-by-bidens-disrespectful-openly-contemptuous-debate-treatment-of-ryan/
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/10/11/angry-old-man-yells-at-paul-ryan-for-90-minutes/
@Hard Right, #20:
After the first Romney/Obama debate, it became clear that democrats would have to become more assertive. I do approve of Biden’s performance tonight. I agree with most of what he said. I haven’t got a clue what you thought was “hate mongering.”
With regard to the important group of the so-called “uncommitted voters,” the CBS poll found a 50 – 31 (percent) advantage for Biden over Ryan. The same poll had reported a 2 to one advantage of Romney over Obama, with regard to the same “uncommitted voter” group.
The main group that Biden needed to convince were Democrats, who were, to say the least, dispirited, following Romney/Obama. At this point, who shows up to vote is more important than which of the 2% of still uncommitted voters have their minds changed.
I thought that the moderator did a good job. I think that Ryan widened the gender gap with his deer in the headlights moment when the abortion question came up. Biden’s strongest point was that we are getting out of Afghanistan in 2014 — no ifs ands or buts and it’s time for the Afghan army to put up or shut up.
I was interested to see what the Romney/Ryan attack line would be on foreign policy, since that has yet to be debated at the Presidential level. I was actually surprised to see how flimsy the case was that “the Obama foreign policy is in a shambles.” I think that Obama is going to do a pretty good job against Romney, foreign-policy wise.
I think that Portman would have been a much better VEEP choice than Ryan. Besides the personal qualities, Portman might have made the difference with regard to carrying Ohio. I think that elements of the senior vote are still in play in Florida and that Biden’s performance will help the Obama ticket in Florida. Joe was speaking right to those East Coast snowbird retirees, when he looked straight in the camera and asked, rhetorically, “who do you trust” (on Medicare/SS)?
One of the most important things that Biden did was to keep up interest in the debates. It will be an advantage to Obama to have as big an audience for the upcoming debate as they had for the first debate, provided that Obama’s performance improves. I think that Obama will do better debating foreign policy and do better in a town hall format.
I think that if there were ever an Obama-Biden law firm, Joe would handle the courtroom litigation, while Barack would stay busy with contract law in the conference rooms and law library.
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA
IMHO, no one won. To those not versed on the subject, there would be some perception that Biden carried the night for aggressive force and confidence that what he said was true. Ryan missed so many opportunities…
i.e. Iran. Biden insists that there is time because Iran has no weapon on which to mount their enriched uranium. Then again, Saddam wasn’t supposed to have them either, and those he acquired… post late 90s… were found abandoned in a Netherlands junk yard just after we wandered into Baghdad in 2003. Iran can pick up delivery missiles on the black market, just as Saddam did. When Biden said that, Ryan should have asked him where where Gaddafi’s missing missiles were.
Ryan had to lose Syria because Romney is just as wrong on Syria as Obama is.
For a guy that is as good with figures as Ryan, he wasn’t adept at fielding specifics on closing the loopholes. Those complaining about Romney being vague lost the moment that Biden held up Reagan’s specifics while doing the same. But then, Romney is no Reagan.
Biden did the predictable… blamed the CIA/intelligence officials for the video vs terrorism in Libya. Ryan should have had Eli Lake in his ear, telling him that the intel stated it was a planned attack on the shelf that got the inspiration/green light by protests in Egypt… so why leave out the planned attack part? Both the WH and the CIA had that within the hours following the consulate attack. “Cherry picking” or lies? Take your pick…. Biden shouldn’t have gotten away with that. Demerits to Ryan and his coaches.
Biden then tried to lay the lax security on the budget and GOP obstructionism. Ryan should have easily countered that as well… the State Dept budget figure they were discussing was not devoted just to embassy security. He let Biden get away with that too.
Ryan also left Biden unchallenged on the perception of the US and our “allies”… you know, the ones that have been lost that were gained in the prior admin. There was no mention of Obama, advocating for the removal of US Muslim leader allies, leaving us with a ME that will be in civil war with Islamists for power for the duration. The heart of the O’foreign policy “shambles” is that Obama has taken Muslim allies created during the Bush era, and molded them into unfriendlies. Additionally, he has turned a cold shoulder on our western allies. Biden’s talk of phone conversations with BeBe was weak, at best. One needs only look at BeBe’s views towards the US under this POTUS to figure out an hour chit chat does not mend the damage that Obama has done. Another lost opportunity for Ryan.
Visually, Ryan looked nervous, Biden vacillated between condescending smirks and full attack mode. Sorry, Brad… no “Leave It To Beaver” charm here. Biden was the pit bull Obama wanted and needed him to be… whether effective or not.
Best moment of the night? Biden bringing up the 47% remark, and Ryan coming back about those who make inadvertent gaffes….. effectively nailing the notorious gaffe-prone Biden to the wall.
INRE your comment, @Tom – “The way you know the Right knows they lost is when they start whining about how rude the other guy was, and how the moderator wasn’t on their side. “ – It’s a rare occasion when the moderator is on the side of any conservative in any debate, so that’s a non issue. I agree that basing who got the better of the other in the debate on perceptive civility vs rudeness/aggression is absurd. Certainly between Romney and Obama, Romney was the aggressor of the two, and it didn’t seem to bother anyone then.
Anyone who has ever watched Biden in action in these before would have known what to expect. Biden is, and has never been, a “Leave It To Beaver” pol. His pit bull comes out often, and instantly when challenged, or around other pols. That “gosh, shucks maam” crap is just a face reserved for constituents in campaign rallies and speeches. It’s just that some times his pit bull is more effective than others.
However that doesn’t mean I think Biden won on substance or style, just because he was the pushy aggressor. For me, personally, neither one exhibited anything I wanted to see from a Veep, and potential next-in-line POTUS. Count me unimpressed with both. Romney better hope he does better than Ryan in foreign policy.
Here’s an example for you, Greg… bringing up Palin and mocking the “death panels”, while avoiding the reality of the IPAB and their existence. That was a duck and dodge, hidden under petty hate mongering.
I could give you more, but I’d have to sit thru and mark down most of the times he was attempting to speak over, or interrupt Ryan.
@Greg:
I was referring to Tom as a hate monger. Again, the fact you think biden was great speaks volumes about you. Unable to win on substance he went the Alinskey route. I will not be surprised to see this backfire on the obama and co.
In all fairness Mata, had Romney acted the way Biden acted, I would have been just as disgusted. Fortunately he did not.
Since the left whined and called Romney a liar for stating facts, here are a few items biden blatantly lied about.
Biden says wasn’t told about security requests in Libya, despite State Department testimony
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/11/biden-says-wasnt-told-about-security-requests-in-libya-despite-state-department/#ixzz294HiVrVq
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/11/biden-says-wasnt-told-about-security-requests-in-libya-despite-state-department/
JOE BIDEN FLAT-OUT LIED ABOUT HIS VOTES ON THE WARS IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ
http://minx.cc/?post=333764
@MataHarley, #25:
I see the Independent Payment Advisory Board as a means to get a handle on rising health care costs, by using the power of the Medicare program as a very large-volume buyer.
Presently, Congress must approve recommended payment rate changes for Medicare services. Special interests that profit from high costs love that arrangement.
Under the new IPAB procedure, payment rate changes can be made by a panel that’s been charged with optimizing the health care benefit that’s received for each Medicare dollar spent. They won’t be beholden to lobbyists, or swayed by the promise of campaign dollars.
Congress will have the power to overrule any proposed IPAB rate changes by a supermajority vote. If they do that, of course, it will necessarily be done in a high-profile fashion. Congress will become answerable for acting, or for failure to act.
How is this not in the public interest?
re: #14
HA! Two down-votes for a link to the debate transcript!
@Greg:
I would say it’s because they don’t care for you, not because of what you linked.
I like to think it’s a little bit of both.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/republicans-biden-laughed-issues_654261.html
“Vice President Biden is laughing … are you?”
@openid.aol.com/runnswim:
I’m thinking they would both be in jail.
I thought this was the most telling on Biden’s debate performance:
H/T to Ace
I will say one thing; I liked Biden’s answer on abortion. As a Catholic, I feel the same. There is just one problem, Biden doesn’t believe his own BS. He knows full well that Catholic and other religious organizations are suing the administration over their edicts to force them into providing contraceptives. Funny, I was pretty sure in his answer he said he “won’t impose my beliefs on others.”
Biden’s demeanor during the entire election debate: unbecoming of a vice-president.
The seriousness and maturity of a vice-president was exhibited by Rep. Paul Ryan. The problems of the United States are serious issues and the deaths caused by the lack of adequate security in Libya is even more sobering.
Most polls show that Paul Ryan beat Biden by a large margin.
@Drama: Funny, that’s what I felt about Romney in the first debate.
After reading one of the most popular Leftist sites and the opinions of their most loyal, it is interesting to note how they consider Biden’s boorish condescending behavior the mark of a leader.
They considered the partisan behavior of the moderator to be the highlight of the evening and declared her a winner. Obviously, she didn’t let the “debate” get out of “control” and leave the Democrat looking like a fool, like in the last debate.
Mata thought Ryan looked nervous, I missed that impression. He missed several opportunities to go for the jugular, but with Biden The Boor being allowed to freely dispute Ryan’s assertions and interrupt Ryan’s dialogue during his delivery, it is no wonder he missed several points.
He should have demanded the moderator do her job and that Biden speak in turn. I appreciate Ryan’s sense of fairness and genteel manners, but with people who thrive on the “get in their face” union thug tactics, it is seen as weakness.
Ryan should have gone for the kill over Biden’s lies concerning the requests for security from Benghazi and the president’s cover-up. He was weak on the 47% remark, and the Leftists are having a field day with those remarks. The situation with our allies, especially Netanyahu should have been stressed, rather than letting Biden weasel out of the situation with teleconferencing. Since when is our most loyal ally in the M.E. reduced to the level of a phone call when he is in town and our president uses his time to appear on a celebrity show.
Yes, Ryan missed a few cues, but he is just beginning his big appearances: Biden is ending his. Ryan will learn from his mistakes. Biden walks away being glorified as the same condescending boor that walked into the debate.
We can’t expect an unseasoned politician to employ the same back alley tactics as a thug like Biden, that isn’t why the process of political maturation is termed grooming, and we don’t really want to carve out a conservative politician with the instincts and manners of a Chicago thug politician.
This debate has little if any influence on the election, the lies of Biden will be forgotten, like his boast of dealing with Palin’s death panels, when they weren’t mentioned in their debate. More importantly, we have an up and coming politician compared to the old-style Chicago type politician.
@retire05: Similar to many left-wing characterizations of the first debate about Romney and Obama—with Obama on the polite side, Romney as the anti-factual steam-roller, and disparaging the moderator. (When will the right-wing learn to be somewhat objective?)
@Nan G: If Biden hadn’t interrupted, he couldn’t have gotten a word in edge-wise with Ryan’s robot-call demeanor.
@Hard Right: Funny how righties agree with efficacy of polls, when they agree with them.
@Liberal1 (Objectivity): Because you are biased, and only seeing what you want to see . . .
@Hard Right: What is the Alinskey quote regarding this matter?
@Hard Right: Romney’s lies and side-steps in the first debate were as disgusting as anything.
@Liberal1 (Objectivity):
Name some. Just because what Romney says isn’t what ThinkProgress or HufffPo told you he said, doesn’t make it a lie; it makes you misinformed.
@Liberal1 (Objectivity): Perhaps you should be looking ahead to the 2016 election–Romney’s got this one in the bag. The Democrats have a lot of work to do, like re-inventing their party to be relevant, and also finding an actual platform outside of promising ice cream to whatever sucker will take it.
The up and coming Republicans are people like Allen West, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, just name a few . . . lots of them non-white and non-men. The farce that the Dems are the party that speak for minorities and women is finally being challenged. Who is going to run against these said heros?
Who do the dems have waiting in the wings? If I were you, I’d stop quibbling on a board like this with people who have good points that trump yours. I would go out and start trying to rebuild the Democratic Party into something that will actually serve the people, not exploit them and take them “backwards.”
@Hard Right: Biden had no monopoly on misfactual information: “At The Vice Presidential Debate: Ryan Told 24 Myths In 40 Minutes”
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/10/12/1002021/at-the-vice-presidential-debate-ryan-told-24-myths-in-40-minutes/
@Aqua: Take your pick—falsify them if you can: “At Last Night’s Debate (the first debate): Romney Told 27 Myths In 38 Minutes
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/10/04/958801/at-last-nights-debate-romney-told-27-myths-in-38-minutes/
@Nathan Blue: Not true. If you follow my comments, you’ll see that I can be yield a fair criticism of either side—although leaning to the Left.
@Liberal1 (Objectivity):
I know that Obama is now pushing the meme that the reason he looked so God-awful at the debate was because he is just so polite he couldn’t go after Mitt Romney. Hogwash. Obama has no answers. Never did. Never will. Just an empty slate on which you could project your version of “hope and change” on.
You see, you can answer questions and respond to comments by your opponent without looking like an angry old fool, which is what Joe Biden did. But basically, Biden’s responses were the canned responses his handlers told him to give, with his snarky style he is know for (they’re gonna put you back in chains). I don’t think anyone can accuse Joe Biden of having the brain of a rocket scientist.
Obama lost because he cannot defend his own record. Pure and simple. Biden, OTOH, was just rude and certainly not presidential, and remember, that dottering old fool is just a heartbeat away from the Oval Office. Even the left leaning fact checkers are saying “Biden lied.”
Now, I’m sure you think that being rude was just fine. But I will tell you this: that rudeness will not work with anyone, foreign or domestic, who doesn’t care that Obama is fighting for his very political life. And sorry, Biden did vote for both war actions taken by Congress after 9-11-2001. Perhaps Axelrod should have loaded Biden up on Aracept before Biden hit the stage last night.
@Nathan Blue: The Democrats don’t have to worry about that until 2016—since they are going to win in 2012—watch! Maybe Hillary Clinton will decided she wants to be President in 2016. By that time this recession should be pretty well sorted out—not claiming anyone will be responsible for the betterment of the economy (only the harm that the Republicans could have done will be minimized)—and a there will be no argument, except old arguments, against the Democrats.
Now, can you see the objectivity in this statement—compared to yours, for example.