Friday, October 12, 2012

Post Veep

Having had some time to cogitate on last night's debate, here is (to borrow a construction from Peter King of Sports Illustrated) what I think I think:

Body language and non-verbal communication is going to matter on this one. Joe Biden went out with a plan to be dominant and he certainly was on the offensive all evening. Was he offensive? You could make that argument. Here is an image that showed up on my Facebook feed this morning:

Joltin' Joe
That's pretty remarkable, actually.

Ann Althouse, who live-blogged the debate, wasn't impressed:


9:48: That debate was so annoying! Some of the CNN commentators are talking about how Biden did what he came to do, to fire up the Democrats. "This was not for the independents," says Van Jones. Okay, well, but independents were watching, and Biden was horribly rude. He created this disturbing atmosphere of anxiety.
Emphasis is hers. Anxiety is in the eye of the beholder. I found it a little, well, theatrical.

As for Ryan, his test was different. Could you see him as President? After last night, I'd say yes. Biden tried to work in a Lloyd Bentsen-style Jack Kennedy shot during the debate, but it didn't really work because it came as crosstalk during one of Biden's many interruptions of Ryan.

Does it move the needle? Not as much as the first debate did. Romney has a chance to close the deal in the next two debates. We'll see. Meanwhile, here's a poll:


This debate needs an enema
Who won -- Biden or Ryan?
  
pollcode.com free polls 



12 comments:

Bike Bubba said...

The question for Biden; do we want a guy in his position to think that critical policy questions are the equivalent of banter in the junior high locker room? Because that's the impression he gave.

Chuckwagon Boy said...

Romney does better than Obama and the Dems whine that Romney was a liar. Biden wins and the Repubs whine that Biden was snarky and had evil smiles. Aren't debates fun?!

Mr. D said...

CB,

Don't know which debate you watched, but Biden didn't win.

Gino said...

dont know about the rest of ya, but i watched football and debated a bottle of Rebel Yell.
Rebel Yell won. wasnt even close...

Mr. D said...

Rebel Yell would have been preferable to Scranton Yell, Gino.

Gino said...

it was.

Chuckwagon Boy said...

I didn't watch the VP debates at all, so my information is purely from what I read. According to a lot of things I was reading, some said Ryan won, but more said Biden won by gaining some momentum for the President. Oh, and the moderator won too! :)

Chuckwagon Boy said...

Mr. D., I got to admit that I like this commentary. Never read the guy before, but I kind of like his sentiment.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/the-vice-presidential-debate-joe-biden-was-right-to-laugh-20121012?stop_mobi=yes

Mr. D said...

CB,

You really needed to see the debates to understand how ridiculous Biden was.

I didn't say much about Raddatz, but she completely overcompensated for what happened to Lehrer. If you watch the debate, you'll see that she cut Ryan off repeatedly, which got very annoying as the debate went on. She did two useful things, however -- she asked at length about Libya, which needs to be an issue in this campaign, and she let Biden bumble around on his Catholicism in a way that revealed him quite well.

I have never been impressed with Matt Taibbi, who has always confused invective with analysis.

Chuckwagon Boy said...

And Raddatz pressed Ryan about Romney's 20% tax-cut plan. :)

Mr. D said...

And Raddatz pressed Ryan about Romney's 20% tax-cut plan. :)

In the end, that will redound to R/R's benefit, CB. Watch what happens.

Chuckwagon Boy said...

Mr. D, Could be it will work for them. We will see how the debates go as I do not ever remember seeing things swing so wildly due to the debates. Time to get more popcorn ready!