Fred Barnes @ The Weekly Standard:
You don’t win a nationally televised debate by being rude and obnoxious. You don’t win by interrupting your opponent time after time after time or by being a blowhard. You don’t win with facial expressions, especially smirks or fake laughs, or by pretending to be utterly exasperated with what your opponent is saying.
That’s why Vice President Joe Biden didn’t win the one and only debate last night with his Republican rival, Mitt Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan.
In fact, though Ryan had several weak moments—one of them was on Syria—the only conceivable takeaway from the veep debate was Biden’s out of control conduct. It will be long remembered—and not favorably.
There’s one person who should be delighted with Biden. That’s Al Gore. He had the honor of having delivered the most over the top and weird performance in a presidential campaign debate when he sighed and frowned and acted frustrated in his first debate with George W. Bush in 2000. Now Biden has taken that crown—or dunce cap—from Gore.
The only good thing about Thursday night’s debate for the Obama campaign was that it involved Biden rather than Obama. As a result, it’s not likely to have any impact in the election and may not even affect the polls over the next few days.
What were the Obama strategists thinking? Yes, Biden’s performance may have pleased the Democratic party’s liberal base. So what? Their votes are in the bag. Obama needs to attract the small bloc of undecided and swing voters. They’re not likely to lurch his way on the basis of the show Biden put on.
Added by Curt:
I watched most of the debate and yes, Biden was very condescending towards Ryan. Biden is a ‘career politician’ and it shows…To me, he came off like the ass hat he is…and his rude elitist manner didn’t give weight to anything he said or was trying to ?explain?…
I think the focus to the viewer was mainly on his obnoxious behavior not on what he was saying…
With all the smirking and laughing…I had to wonder…when they are behind closed doors… scheming their lies, spin and stories to be told to the American People….is Joe sitting there with his smirking and fake laughter and elitist attitude?….All the while commenting on how stupid the American people are, and with their stupidity how they will ‘buy’ into this Administrations lies, and spin and stories???
On the other hand Ryan held his own kept to his positions, wasn’t intimidated by the ass hat. Ryan showed a lot of class, as well as restraint….Perhaps Ryan was edging [in his mind] thinking he’d like to reach over and smack that smirk right off Biden’s face…or maybe he was thinking WOW what a ass hat!!!
BIDEN has been in government long enough, he must go,
he will fit in the UNIONS JOBS SAME AS OBAMA,
BUT DON’T PUT THOSE BAD JOKERS AT THE HEAD OF AMERICA,
THEY MAKE AMERICA LOOK REAL BAD LIKE A GIANT MAFIA
Maybe Biden and Hillary Clinton will move back to Scranton, PA to retire! They are the poster children for the need to rear better representatives of the people.
And already all the headlines are running damage control for Biden/Obama. Things like saying Biden was “aggressive” rather than crazy. . .
Biden had no choice but to bomb. He is trying to defend a failed Presidency and Democrat record. His only real choice is to act the way he did. He needed to divert attention away from this record by blaming Republicans and flat-out lying. If that’s winning a debate then we are all screwed!! Fact check will absolutely devour his comments!!
@FAITH7, #1:
Ryan is certainly no less a career politician than Biden. Other than a few brief summer jobs while still in school, Ryan has never worked outside of politics.
Biden practiced law from 1969 to 1972, as a public prosecutor and in private practice. He supplemented his income during that period working as a property manager. Since 1972, he has also worked exclusively in politics. He has always been ranked among the least wealthy members of Congress. Unlike Mr. Ryan, he didn’t marry into money.
I don’t know why people feel compelled to keep asserting that Biden bombed. The opinion of most objective viewers seems to be that he did quite well. The right seems to believe that they can make a questionable assertion true simply by endless repetition. That doesn’t change reality. Only what people think about it. It’s what is commonly known as brainwashing.
@Greg:
And the left doesn’t, Greg?
How many times has a lefty politician, including Biden last nite, asserted that Romney’s tax “plan” would add $5 Trillion in new debt?
And even after Ryan brought up that Cutter, herself, backed away from that claim, Biden continued to assert that the claim is true. Really?
If you are going to be objective, Greg, better look at the questionable claims of Obama/Biden as much as you harp on the right, otherwise you look like nothing less than a shill for the liberal/progressives of the Democratic Party.
Obama/Biden make the same clever lie with statistics time after time when it comes to what cuts would do under a Romney/Ryan Administration.
They AVERAGE across the boards all cuts proposed by Romney- Ryan.
So, during the debate Biden falsely claimed that a Romney Ryan budget would have cut $300 million from Embassy security!
Actually, the 19% cut proposed by Romney/Ryan allows for some programs to be completely killed while other programs stay funded.
Obama uses this lie, too.
Biden also claimed there was NO WASTE (fraud or abuse) in how stimulus money has been spent.
We all know how crony friends of Obama’s have been given nice big green loans only to go bankrupt after paying themselves very well for a year or two.
But do we realize that long before Biden said this last night over 20 cases of fraud in the stimulus program had ended in CONVICTIONS?
Biden was cute how he claimed that Catholic hospitals and universities, would not have to “refer for contraception,” “pay for contraception,” and “none has to be a vehicle for contraception.”
Not true IF the Catholic institution SELF-INSURES!
Plenty of law suits are wending their way to the Supreme Court over that one!
@johngalt, #7:
I’ve yet to hear the specifics details and see the arithmetic that demonstrates it won’t. Their deadpan line that all of the necessary details to avoid a $5 Trillion shortfall will be developed and worked out later by a process of bipartisan give and take has got be be one of most preposterous assertions I’ve heard in the last 20 years. Since the far-right arrived on the scene in numbers, Congress hasn’t even been able to work out how to attend to the nation’s most basic, routine business.
You can’t cut taxes by 20 percent, give a big boost to an already bloated defense budget, and divert part of the FICA revenue stream into a private investment scheme while guaranteeing you’ll maintain benefit levels for current retirees, while simultaneously reducing deficits. It’s just isn’t possible. If you’re going to keep claiming that it is, it will be necessary to provide more than a vague sentence or two, devoid of any specific details whatsoever, to make your case.
Biden could have used the word “malarkey” with much greater frequency last night, as that accurately describes much if not most of the Romney/Ryan platform. The platform isn’t a collection of proposed solutions. It’s a sales pitch. It sounds good until you get to the level of specific detail. At that point, any thoughtful, honest observer will suddenly realize that there aren’t any.
Biden also claimed: “….this man voting to put two wars on a credit card. ….I was there, I voted against them. I said, no, we can’t afford that.”
Uh, NO, Biden, you voted FOR both going into Iraq and going into Afghanistan,
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=1&vote=00281
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/transcripts/senaterollcall_iraq101002.htm
How dare Biden LIE like this???
@Nan G, #10:
Biden voted for the war.
Did he vote in favor of pursuing a war without adjusting the federal budget to pay for it?
Did he vote for the Bush tax cuts?
This is a typical example of right-wing spin.
@Greg:
All that shows is that you haven’t listened to a damn thing that was said. Either last nite, or anywhere else.
My guess is that you were so busy cheering on Biden’s rudeness and asshattery last nite that you missed the important parts.
I’d suggest that you actually read objective analysis of what Romney/Ryan want to do, but I’m not sure that you know of any objective sites, or could even recognize it if you came across it.
@johngalt, #12:
I listened carefully. What I heard was Ryan making the same bullshit assertions that Romney has repeatedly made. Ryan’s answer to the projected 10-year $5 Trillion deficit was the same bullshit answer Romney gave.
Romney, on the Tax Policy Center study–which, btw, has been found fully credible after numerous critical evaluations:
Ryan, last night:
No, it hasn’t been discredited “by six other studies.” There’s one, by Harvey Rosen–a former George W. Bush economic policy adviser. The rest of the 6 “studies” seem to be nothing more than blog postings by Romney backers.
These guys are completely full of it. Right up to their eyebrows.
@Greg: Speaking of a budgeet, when will the Democrat controlled Senate propose one? This is a failure that can NOT be ignored.
GREG
compare THAT TO ATROCIOUS BIDEN LIES ON LIBYA
YOU ARE DISHONEST, AND NOT CREDIBLE,
@Greg:
No, you haven’t listened to anyone but Obama/Biden and their “bullsh*t” assertions about the plan, which they parrot from the TPC study.
And, as well, it’s easy to claim that any “study” that disproves, or challenges the TPC report are nothing more than “blog postings by Romney backers”. With the way politics are now, no Obama/Biden supporter is going to sustain any assertion by the Romney/Ryan camp, and vice-versa.
For clarification on the TPC report, and the Romney/Ryan tax “plan”, read this;
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/09/tax-policy-centers-skewed-analysis-of-governor-romneys-tax-plan
I’m sure that you will come back and criticize the article for being on Heritage, but the substance is there. At least it is for anyone willing to read and understand it without a preconceived idea on it already.
@Greg:
So says the guy who supports Obama/Biden that believes lyin’ Joe when he claims he didn’t vote FOR the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What’s that say about you?
@johngalt: Sadly to have a serious discussion with Greg is hopeless. It’s casting your pearls among the swine.
PAUL RYAN WAS VERY CLASSY AND KNOWLEDGEBLE, HE CONDUCT HIMSELF,
AS A PERSON WORTHY OF THE VICE PRESIDENTIAL POSITION,
BIDEN is a joker of the fable, noting more except for his blatant lies,
and OBAMA was claiming his pride of his conduct, the bar is set low on OBAMA SIDE.
THAT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR AMERICA AND THAT BAR IS TO LOW FOR THE PEOPLE
TO LET HIM IN 4 MORE YEARS,
THEY BOTH DON’T MEET THE STANDARDS OF THESES GIANTS
HERO SOME WHO DIED FOR THIS COUNTRY,
BIDEN said that RYAN PLAN WOULD CUT BUDGET,
HE DID NOT SAY THAT OBAMA DID NEVER MADE A BUDGET IN HIS LAST FOUR YEARS,
BIDEN, HEY SMILE, WHAT BUDGET? Y’ALL AINT HAVE A BUDGET’
BUT PAUL RYAN CARE FOR AMERICANS, HE HAS A BUDGET,
@johngalt, #17:
Perhaps I should simplify post #11, so that understanding its meaning won’t require any active thinking whatsoever on the part of the reader.
FLORIDA, THANK YOU, COME ON MORE, YOU CAN DO IT,
WE ARE WATCHING YOU.
@Greg:
I suppose you work for Biden now? And are ‘clarifying’ his assertion that he didn’t vote for either war?
Biden made that claim twice last nite, both times clearly saying he voted against the wars. What’s so hard to understand about the fact that he lied?
OK. Let me make this as easy as possible.
Biden did vote for the war.
Biden did not vote to pay for it using a credit card. That outcome had to do with republican tax and budget policies.
That was what Biden was saying he didn’t vote for.
Clarification of that point really shouldn’t be required.
@Greg: OK Greg, if he voted for it but not the credit card does this mean he would not have voted for it without a budget to pay for it? Geeez you’re so stupid!!
Greg @ #6 Yes, Greg he IS a career politician…he has been doing this…what? 40 years???
That pretty much makes him a career politician…and Biden knows how to do the politics dance….dance around issues, problems, kick em down the road – throw out talking points, throw his political weight around – much in the condescending manner he did last night….
Biden knows the ‘ropes’ of the Halls of Congress…how especially when it comes to perpetuating problems which enable him to continue on his career path without doing much of anything notable or noble for his country…and fellow Americans… All you had to do was listen to him last night..
He is a do nothing just like his boss – a LIAR to boot…
I heard not one common sense, concrete way in which the two asshats in our White House are going to bring our debt down, stimulate the economy, and create jobs!!!.. which will bring success to their “plans?”[what plans??]…what we PLAN ON….what we CAN EXPECT from these two asshats is MORE of the SAME of the Last FOUR Miserable years!!!
When Ryan tried to put forth his ideas in this ?? ‘debate’ ?? he was met with smirks, laughter, faces, constant interruptions eyes rolling and LIES… and the interruptions include the moderator….
You gave Biden a pretty crappy resume Greg…. there is really nothing outstanding about a Lying Big Mouth, Obnoxious Career Politician…on steroids…
I applaud Greg for not falling to the level of many leftists on the Twitter, blogs and comments sections on the web who were actually glad that Biden was so uncivil in his reactions.
(You can see I’ve been poking around all those places, today.)
When Rep. Gabby Gifford (D) was shot and nearly killed, Dems from Obama on down screamed for ”civility.”
Now, however, Obama mocks Romney when Obama is on the stump.
Biden’s antics might be written off as the way any old man acts but the Left’s responses IN FAVOR of his antics are a repudiation of any call for civility.
The reason I didn’t like Biden’s antics is that they kept happening when he was confronted with the idea of bi-partisan actions being needed.
Biden laughs that idea off!
That is scary in itself.
More scary is that so many other leftists agree with him on line.
The funnest comment I have seen on the web has been by one woman who said that last night Joe Biden reminded her of the irritating boss who pats women on the head when they come into work and pats them on the ass when they leave.
@Nan G:
Nan, greg supports what biden did and sees nothing wrong with it.
greg, you could not possibly be more of a hypocrite or guilty of projection. YOU have been coming here and endlessly repeating how tax cuts are bad, caused the deficit, etc. Liberals really are mentally ill.
@Greg: Maybe you should do some research Greg. There are at least 6 different orgnizations who have done the math and believe there is validity in the Romney/Ryan plan.
@Greg: SO Biden voted for a war that would not cost anything? Wake up Greg and start making a real case. Use what reasoning power you have and make a case.
@Greg: Isn’t it wonderful that we common people need to intrepret what the Vice-President of the United States means when he talks! Thank you Greg. I am sure that if Biden had an hour or so he would have made the same statement as you just did.