Biden’s Behavior At Debate
They say the first televised Presidential debate determined the outcome of the election that year. That was back in 1960 when an eloquent and handsome young man from Massachusetts named John F. Kennedy dazzled audiences with his on-camera presence. Meanwhile, his opponent Richard Nixon showed up with a five o’clock shadow. His eyes were darting back and forth and he appeared to be sweating. Yet, what he was saying was potent.
On radio and on paper, Nixon won. On TV, Kennedy scored the victory.
They are saying something similar about the Biden-Ryan debate. Experts believe that on paper or on radio, Biden won. On TV, Ryan won. Biden’s constant interrupting, smiling and laughing was a turn-off. He even described one of Ryan’s ideas as “malarkey.”
It was seen as some of the most outrageous behavior in the history of Presidential and Vice Presidential debates. This will lend itself to great “Saturday Night Live” sketches, but it didn’t work too well for Biden’s reputation.
I am also surprised that Paul Ryan wasn’t overly strong on his attack on the Obama era economy. He didn’t raise his voice or use power words. Perhaps he was a little too behaved. Maybe he could have borrowed from Biden’s behavior a little more.
Ryan did not pounce on Biden’s talking points about the economy the way he should have. Here is a quote from the Vice-President about our national financial woes:
“They talk about this Great Recession if it fell out of the sky, like, oh my goodness, where did it come from? It came from this man voting to put two wars in a credit card, to at the same time put a prescription drug benefit on the credit card, a trillion- dollar tax cut for a — very wealthy. I was there. I voted against him. I said, no, we can’t afford that. And now all of a sudden these guys are so seized with a concern about the debt that they created.”
There was a lot of “malarkey” in these lines. However, Ryan didn’t let the audience leave the debate knowing it. The Great Recession was due largely to people putting things on their personal credit accounts that they couldn’t pay for. Biden is trying to blame it all on Bush. As for the national debt, Obama/Biden have put more into it in under one term than Bush did in two terms.
Oh well. It’s in the books now. Overall, I think this one didn’t live up to all of its hype. it was supposed to be the event that determined the outcome of the election. I am walking away from it thinking that Joe Biden is obnoxious and Paul Ryan isn’t quite strong enough in presenting his case. This is roughly the same opinion I had of the two sides going into the debate. The poll numbers will likely reflect the fact that most Americans feel the same way.
So now we’re off to New York for the next debate on Tuesday. See ya then!
