As I write this Blog, the Vice-Presidential debate is wrapping up.
I admire the stew out of Paul Ryan.
He just spent 90 minutes debating both the Vice-President of the United States and the Moderator, ABC’s Martha Raddatz, who has known Barack Hussein Obama since her ex-husband, the current Chairman of the FCC, and young Scooter were classmates at Harvard Law School.
The scales were tipped from the get-go. Crazy Uncle Joe kept interrupting Congressman Ryan, in an obvious strategy to a) torque him off and get him off his game plan, and b) shout him down so that his arguments could not be heard.
The so-called Moderator, Ms. Raddatz, faithfully did her duty…to the Democratic Party. Every time Ryan would speak, she would interrupt him as well, asking infinitely more questions of him than she did of Jar Jar Biden.
While Ryan kept his cool, as well as his professionalism, Biden appeared to be badly in need of some Prozac, and at times during the debate came across as maniacally desperate.
Several noted Liberals were on Twitter during the debate posting disparaging remarks concerning Crazy Uncle Joe’s smirking and condescending attitude.
Weekly Standard’s Mark Hemingway: “Joe Biden’s laughing through talking about Iran sanctions?”
TIME’s Michael Scherer: “Not sure debate cameras have been light tested for Biden’s teeth. Best to watch with sunglasses.”
Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein: “Biden’s strategy seems to be to laugh at Ryan constantly. Will it work to infantalize Ryan, or backfire like Gore sighing?”
NBC’s David Gregory: “Biden’s smile is out of control.”
BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith: “So did Biden practice laughing at Ryan???”
ABC’s Rick Klein: “Biden on verge of breaking down in laughter when Ryan talks.”
Former Eric Cantor staffer Brad Dayspring: “Joe Biden needs to realize this isn’t a Senate Foreign Relations Hearing. His laughter and condescending attitude is a disaster.”
Radio host Neal Boortz: “Looking like Biden’s gameplan is to laugh his way through this.”
Townhall.com’s Guy Benson: “Will Biden laugh his ass off at the terrible economy, too?”
MSNBC’s S.E. Cupp: “Biden needs to laugh a little less through the Libya, Middle East, nuclear Iran segment.”
Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza: “Ok. I have decided. I find the Biden smile slightly unsettling.”
PBS’ Jeff Greenfield: “Biden has always had a smile that at times is really, really inappropriate.”
Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard: “Can’t tell yet if Biden’s smirking, laughs, eye-rolling, head shaking, works for him or not against the oh-so-young looking eager Ryan.”
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer: “Biden is at risk of having his laugh come across like Gore’s sighs. He should knock it off.”
The New York Times’ Ashley Parker: “Biden’s grin is Chesire Cat caliber.”
Republican strategist Ron Bonjean: “Biden laughing does not come off with the intended effect. It is actually hurting him. Looks very condescending.”
Movie critic Roger Ebert: “Joe! Stop smiling and laughing!”
Washington Times’ Emily Miller: “Biden laughing when he disagrees with Ryan is so annoying. Like a child in time out.”
Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin: “Biden’s laughing is losing the debate- obnoxious”
Comedy Central’s Indecision: “If this keeps up much longer, Joe Biden’s going to sprain his laugh muscles.”
And while Congressman Ryan was too much of a gentleman to do so, I wish he would have asked Ms. Raddatz last night, if she was a supposed to be a Broadcast Journalist or a Democratic Party Activist?
Foxnews.com summarizes the debate for us:
Vice President Biden and Paul Ryan came ready to rumble. And it showed.
The dueling running mates turned the lone vice presidential debate into an uncharacteristically feisty affair Thursday night, scrapping over everything from the economy to Libya to taxes.
The candidates interrupted each other. They talked over each other. Biden chuckled through many of Ryan’s responses. Ryan claimed his opponent was simply under “duress.”
The 90-minute session was a turnaround from last week’s opening presidential debate, a policy-focused bout in which President Obama was panned for his lackluster performance. On stage Thursday night in Kentucky, both vice presidential contenders aggressively challenged each other and came armed with a stack of talking points.
Ryan accused Obama of “projecting weakness” with his foreign policy, particularly in his response to the terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. At home, he accused the administration of presiding over a shoddy recovery.
“This is not what a real recovery looks like,” he said.
Biden went after the Romney/Ryan ticket with a directness that Obama did not a week ago in Denver. Notably, he hammered Romney over his secretly videotaped comment in which he said he doesn’t have to worry about the “47 percent” of Americans who don’t pay federal income taxes.
“These people are my mom and dad, the people I grew up with, my neighbors,” Biden said, adding he’s “had it up to here” with those kinds of comments.
Ryan shot back, in reference to Biden’s tendency to make gaffes: “As the vice president very well knows … sometimes the words don’t come out of your mouth the right way.”
“But I always say what I mean,” Biden responded. “And so does Romney.”
Ryan opened the vice presidential debate with tough criticism of the Obama administration over its handling of the Libya terror attack.
“What we are watching on our TV screens is the unraveling of the Obama foreign policy,” Ryan said.
With the moderator, ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, opening the debate with a question about the Libya strike, which happened a month ago Thursday, Ryan criticized the administration for waiting more than a week after the strike to call it a coordinated terror attack.
“This is becoming more troubling by the day. They first blamed the YouTube video. Now they’re trying to blame the Romney/Ryan ticket for making this an issue,” he said. Ryan was referring to a claim by an Obama aide earlier Thursday that the only reason the attack had entered the political debate was because of Romney’s criticism – a claim Romney rejected.
Biden was quick to retort: “With all due respect, that’s just a bunch of malarkey,” he said, on the debate stage in Kentucky.
“This talk about this weakness, I don’t understand what my friend’s talking about,” he said.
Biden also criticized Romney for making a “political statement”on the night of the attack, a reference to Romney’s criticism of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo’s early response to protests there.
The face-off Thursday night was taking on outsized importance for a vice presidential debate.
After Obama’s debate performance last week, the pressure was on Biden to recapture the momentum – while equally on Ryan to prevent the Obama ticket from blunting Romney’s surge.
In a matter of days, Romney has picked up steam in both battleground and national polls. The latest Fox News national poll of likely voters showed Romney edging Obama, 46 percent to 45 percent.
Other polls show Romney with more of a lead.
Judging from what I saw and heard last night, I don’t think that last night’s cranky old man performance by Crazy Uncle Joe will make a bit of difference.
One last thought:
The spin from the Democrats immediately after the debate was that Joe is “A Happy Warrior”. So is aged Professional Wrestler “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan. But, I don’t want him to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency, either.
spot on kj
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Joe’s real charm showed last night. What a jerk!!!!!
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Awesome post! You may be chuckled to know that I found your blog while doing a search for “How many times did Martha Raddatz interrupt JOE BIDEN?” Funny…. I couldn’t find a single post that discussed it….
If you’re interested, my boyfriend, Brian Donovan is also a Conservative American Christian who LOVES to discuss politics. He has a Facebook fan page, “Brian Donovan, Proud to be An American”
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Thank you for stomaching the rest of the debate, I couldn’t stand watching ‘Joe Fool’ keep interrupting Congressman Ryan, it got to the point for me that I had to turn the channel. His attitude was belligerent, condescending and was just awful. Great article as always and thank you for covering the highlights of last night.
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You whinning, cry baby republican schmucks are pathetic. If Paul Ryan would have stopped Lyin’ he wouldn’t have been interupted. Also, you schmucks seems to conveniently forget how many times Romney interupted, not only president Obama, but the moderator as well. Uncle Joe slapped the snot out of that little smirking, rat-faced choir boy and you guys simply can’t handle it.
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I guess that’s why everyone except CBS had either a tie, or Ryan winning the debate. Just like you, Biden couldn’t argue facts, so he shouted over Ryan and lied. Poor little Troll.
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Sheriff Joe should’ve been crying over what he and the obamanation have done to our Country, not laughing…
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I guess when it’s clear you overwhelmingly lost the debate, all you have left is to talk about how much the other guy smiled. The next time Uncle Joe kick his little chior-boy fanny he should frown while doing it, maybe that would make you happy.
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Well then, based on your logic, you should be speechless come Nov. 7th.
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I don’t remember the obamanation talking about Romney’s smile…
Biden lies. He can’t help himself. Whether it was about FDR going on TV or hanging out at Home Depot or eating at a long closed eatery in his hometown, he lies…
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