Opinion
Biden Came; Biden Debated; Biden Scored
Time check: 11:41 p.m.
The Vice Presidential Debate ended more than 45 minutes ago – and on all the television networks, pundits are dissecting things; checking facts and asking themselves if this debate was won by either Rep. Paul Ryan as the Republican challenger, or by Vice President Joe Biden as the incumbent.
A few minutes before the debate, I had sat, transfixed to my computer – worried what I was going to write about after this debate especially because I know that a great many people that read this newspaper do not necessarily understand what drives both the Republican and Democratic parties in the U.S. I wanted to communicate these things in a clear and simple way. Well … Allow me to say this. In the Vice Presidential Debate of October 11, 2012, Joe Biden, the incumbent came to win, he debated to win – and on those two fronts, he scored.
Yes – arguments can be made that the Vice President was disruptive of decorum by interrupting his opponent, who seemed calm, collected and actually presidential. From that perspective, Paul Ryan did his party ticket so many favors. But the overall favors were created by Joe Biden. Mr. Biden slowed the hemorrhaging of the Democratic Party. You see – after last week’s debate between President Obama and his rival Gov. Mitt Romney, almost everyone felt the seismic shift in the country’s zeitgeist. Gov. Romney out-debated Obama and basically made Obama fail in his defense of liberal policy. Obama did not even make a good case for government intervention into the lives of the Americans. For his part, Romney seemed proud to be a Republican – in a time when Republican policies are supposed to be associated with unpopular austerity movements.
But today, Joe Biden sat next to his opponent and defended liberal ideas. He did not let Paul Ryan get away with a single thing. It was almost as if Joe Biden had had enough of the Republicans. Some people said that Biden treated his opponent with disdain. However, let us look at the facts: If someone accuses you of wasting money and being fickle when it comes to dealing with naughty neighbors, you have every right to call him out on his trash.
Biden called Ryan’s diatribe ‘malarky’ and ‘stuff.’ These are such un-presidential words – but Biden is Biden. Even the President gave his vice carte blanche to do what he does best.
And Boy, did Biden rouse the Democrats! By the way, if you really want to know whether a Democrat is doing well, go and watch Fox News or read their website. Because this channel would rather celebrate the scandals and bad news coming out of the Democratic government, there will not be a whiff of a win by liberals.
Watching Sean Hannity this evening was actually very instructive. If Barack Obama had done to Mitt Romney what Biden did to Ryan, there would have been a proper faux outrage. Tonight, the most important issue Sean Hannity, one of Fox’s commentators, takes with Biden is how rude he was in interrupting Paul Ryan. And in the same breathe, Mr. Hannity went right back to his talking points about the debacle in Benghazi.
Simply, if there’s anything that will make the Obama administration look bad, Fox News will find it. Heck – they even found a story linking Obama to free phones supplied by the world’s richest man.
Simply put: Joe Biden did what Obama should have done last week. On the other hand, perhaps this was preordained and was meant to prepare us for a real discussion between the two political parties and ideologies. What happened on that Kentucky stage tonight is more important than many people can ever know. In fact, we did not know how important it was going to be until the moderator asked the two men to substantiate their debating and talking points.
Biden defended liberalism while Ryan defended conservatism. If you were conservative and watched this debate, you walked away feeling much better about yourself. What was on display was a reasoned way of doing things. Conservative policy on the economy, on taxes and on foreign policy was actually sane – not as wild eyed as the Obama campaign had presented Mitt Romney’s campaign. When it came to issues like caring for the middle class and for ordinary people, Biden made such a compelling case that you just had to give him his due. When he talked about abortion – by saying he had no right to make choices for others – you felt women suddenly glow! Basically, we found out that the conservatives are bad for women and liberals are better at doing things to support the middle class.
Needless to say, the heart of the matter was this: Joe Biden rescued the Obama Campaign Malaise. Do not be surprised to see Obama starting to do better again in the polls. Obama’s campaign is effective at spinning good news of this magnitude. And just so you know how good that campaign is: See how they succeeded in negatively painting Romney.
In essence, at the next presidential debate – one, presumably, for the history books again – it will be up to Obama to prove that he can defend his policies before we can give him the keys to the White House again.
After tonight, Biden may have just softened up the hearts of those who are important in this matter.
Dennis Matanda
Editor – editor@thehabarinetwork.com