Thursday, October 11, 2012

Did Biden Or Ryan Win The Veep Debate?

Well, Vice-President Dim Wit Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) had their much anticipated vice-presidential debate tonight.
The obvious question is who won?
Well, I don't think our illustrious vice-president did himself any favors tonight in tone, style and frankly many answers.
Rep. Ryan was steady, calm, cool and came up with a couple of good zingers.
So, in the end, the edge, but not a smack-down victory does go to Rep. Ryan. But Vice-President Dim Wit Biden probably did fire up the left-wing base of the Democrat party. And in the process turned off more independents and solidified Republicans around the Romney-Ryan ticket.
I think that this comment from the estimable Charles Krauthammer sums it up, sadly:

If you were listening on radio, Biden won. If you were watching it, Ryan won.

I think that is true.
Hey, if you like former Vice-President Al Gore and the sighs and smirks in the 2000 election campaign against former President George W. Bush, you would have loved Vice-President Dim Wit Biden up against Rep. Ryan.
I mean, it is one thing to smile and look and act confident. But it is another to have these facial expressions of outright dismay. And laughing throughout the "debate". And hey, when he is not being a blowhard, why damn! Just keep interrupting Rep. Ryan when he tried to answer a question from ABC Newsgal Martha Radditz.
But in between all of that, Rep. Ryan managed to articulate the top of the GOP ticket, Mitt Romney, and what he wants to do if elected president. And managed to get a couple of zingers off on Vice-President Dim Wit Biden.
Now I loathe to ever resort to using the so-called fact-checkers. Most of the time, it is an excuse for actual reporters to not do reporting. But this link seems to be more fair than others.
On what may have been the damning part of the night for Team Worthless Leader Obama, Vice-President Dim Wit Biden really stepped in it.  It is in regards to the assassination of the United States ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens and three others in the terrorist attack on the United States temporary consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Here is the exchange:

BIDEN, on whether U.S. should have beefed up security at the U.S. Consulate in Libya before the deadly terrorist attack there: "We weren't told they wanted more security there."
RYAN: "There were requests for more security."

And the fact-check verdict?
Rep. Ryan is correct.
And the worst part is that, once again, the Obama administration looks like The Keystone Kops in not knowing anything before, during and worse, after the attack.

Another whopper that Vice-President Dim Wit Biden, parroting the whole Democrat party talking points is that they, only they, "rescued" Government General Motors. And how it saved jobs and all is rainbows and unicorns.
Uh, only problem is that, regrettably, the auto bailout began in the waning days of the George W. Bush administration.
And the whopper continues because once again, lie numero dos is that Mitt Romney did not want an auto bailout. That he just wanted GM to die.
And that is a lie bore out by this fact-check:

BIDEN: "Romney said `No, let Detroit go bankrupt.'"
THE FACTS: GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has gotten endless grief through the campaign for the headline put on his November 2008 opinion essay that he wrote for The New York Times. But his point was never that he wanted the auto industry to go down the tubes.
Romney opposed using government money to bail out Chrysler and General Motors, instead favoring privately financed bankruptcy restructuring. His prescription seemed improbable. Automakers were hemorrhaging cash and the banking system was in crisis, so private money wasn't available. Without the government money, it's likely both companies would have gone out of business. Romney did propose government-guaranteed private loans for both companies after bankruptcy.

While the fact-checker seems to offer an opinion at the end, that they would end up going out of business rather than being allowed to reorganize, the thrust is that Mr. Romney did not want the government to be as involved as it became in both GM and Chrysler.
But lets face facts.
On the right, we wanted to see Rep. Ryan mop the floor with Vice-President Dim Wit Biden's hair plugs.
But that did not quite happen. Rep. Ryan held his own and ends up shinning over you-know-who by simply not coming off as rude and obnoxious.
So, in that respect it is a victory for Rep. Ryan, the GOP ticket and Mr. Romney.
Vice-President Dim Wit Biden may have just went a little too far in the shtick department. Again, watching the debate and the split-screen and seeing Vice-President Dim Wit Biden just smile, laugh, look incredulous and just plain annoying probably excited the Democrat base. The problem with the approach that Vice-President Dim Wit Biden took is that it will turn off the very voters that they need at this point. They do not need the Democrat base fired up. They are. But not as many as in 2008. They need independents at this point. And I do not think that Vice-President Dim Wit Biden did any favors in that regard.
The edge goes to Rep. Ryan, but not by much.
It is enough though to keep the big mo' going Romney's way.

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