Friday, October 12, 2012

Joe Biden. Well damn.

This is a political post.

Is she available for the next debate? My favorite line of moderator Martha Raddaz was after she asked Rep. Ryan if his plan had specifics. He'd launched into a short piece on bi-partisanship so she stopped him and repeated the question. When he started again with explanation she cut him off flatly : "So, No, no specifics then."

Priceless.

Although Red State disagrees, and for some reason saw Ryan as the winner, Joe Biden broke through the image of the politico always good for a verbal gaffe.  Can Biden give Obama the debate prep for next time, or maybe a blood transfusion or something? Given his foreign policy background and unpredictable mouth I actually expected Biden to do well, but his showing was so much better than I expected. He was Samuel L. Jackson in white face - electrifying, agitated, almost scary good. Now, I say that with the caveat that his debate performance was the equivalent of in game adjustments, that after seeing the chamelon-like Romney's performance last week, he prepared for more of the same from Ryan. And so prepared, Biden came out of locker room and brought the wood.

Newt Gingrich remarked that it's hard to debate a liar, and I guess that's because debates are usually a very polite and professional affair. But it's easy to debate someone who "massages the truth" if you call them out on it. Biden didn't hesitate to call out Ryan when he veered off the edge of the reality, alternately laughing at him and looking shocked at the younger man's comments.  I could almost see the glint in his eyes when he caught himself just before cussing on national TV, changing his sentiment to a more prime-time palatable "stuff." Where Ryan was cagey, Biden was direct. Libya? It was the Ryan's Republican House that cut the security budget for the embassy. Iran? Toughest sanctions ever. Syria? All that's left is to put troops on the ground. Budget? Yours is mathematically impossible. Medicare? Call it what you want but your plan is still a voucher program. What else ya got?

I half expected Biden to blurt during one of his "bet against America" comments that Ryan doesn't even believe in his own campaign - and point out he's still running ads for re-election in Wisconsin.

My spit-take moment however, was when asked what he could bring to the office of the vice president character wise, the first word out of Paul Ryan's mouth was "honesty." Does he not understand we can see him? What was his best marathon time again? He claimed he didn't ask for stimulus money right before we found out he did? Honesty? You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

Bill Mahar summed it up the best in a tweet that should be on the news : Hello 9-1-1? There's an old man beating a child on my TV." 

Obama, I think Joe deserves one of those White House beers, ya think?

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