Well, I misjudged Joe Biden. I held his intelligence in low esteem, and thought Paul Ryan would use his superior intellect to roll over the VP even more decisively than Mitt Romney did Obama.
This post is being created before I have a chance to hear any of the pundits or talking heads tell me what I should think about the debate. I was sitting in a traffic jam on I70, not moving an inch for most of the debate. So I only heard it - I didn't see it. I know that body language and facial expression can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of debaters, so I can only comment on what I heard.
Everybody knew that Biden was going to hammer his campaign's theme that Mitt is a liar, and boy did he ever. He continuously sniped, snickered, and interruped Ryan, which was a stark contrast to the much more polite Republican who stayed silent while Joe had the floor. The strategy was obvious - keep interuppting Ryan to try to throw him and knock him off balance, while challenging every single Ryan statement as untrue.
It got almost ridiculous, as Biden would pretend to be trying his hardest to suppress the word "Liar!". He also delivered his own talking points passionately, making the audience understand that he really is a true believer in his party's platforms and philosophies.
When the Catholic values question came up and Ryan talked about the First Amendment violation the President has perpetrated through his ObamaCare Contraceptive Regulation, you would have believed from Biden's response that Ryan was lying about that too. But no, if you just follow what he said and think about it for a couple of minutes, you realize he just changed the subject! He gave a litany of examples of things ObamaCare does NOT force Catholics to do, as if that excuses the mandate.
Biden's soft tone while he explained his view on abortion (pro) must have been a terrific acting job, as he sounded compassionate while pretending he cares about the health and well-being of women. Gay Marriage never came up.
I came away from the debate disappointed. My expectation that Ryan would embarass the VP was thoroughly destroyed. If I had to vote on who "won", I'd have to give the nod to Joe by just a few points. Based on his passion, his success in using interruption and feigned outrage to knock Ryan off balance, and his ability to lie extremely convincingly.
Ryan should have realized that Biden had turned the tables on him, instead of being forced to try defending his administration, he was forcing Ryan to defend his team's proposals. Biden almost made it sound as if it was Romney and Ryan that had been in charge the last 4 years, not he and Obama.
I generally think of myself as fairly knowledgeable, but Biden kept bringing up obscure "facts" I'd never heard anywhere to defend his president. I was amazed as his brazenness in continually asserting outright lies passionately and turning them back on Ryan, at one point actually trying to suggest the debacle in Benghazi was Ryan's fault because he cut the security funding!
All that's left is to hope that those who asserted pre-debate that the VP debate normally has no bearing on the election outcome are correct.
Update: What I missed first time around was the visual. Biden was outrageous for the entire debate, going well beyond the audible interruptions I heard over the radio. He used exaggerated expressions and gestures along with verbal assaults to try to convey the impression of Ryan as either grossly ignorant or an outrageous liar. You would have thought that Biden considered every single Ryan sentence (even "Nice to see you, Mr. Vice President") a horrible lie.
The visuals definitely changed my perception on who may have won the debate; now I wouldn't say Ryan won, but would say that Biden lost.
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