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Political Hay
Bluster and Loose Talk
Biden swung hard but mostly hit air.
Joe Biden decried the “bluster” and “loose talk” of his opponent at Thursday’s debate, repeating the phrase several times. Coming from Biden, one of the most blustery pols in American history, the charge was particularly rich. Paul Ryan’s unflashy sobriety in contrast to Biden’s smirking theatrics made the vice president’s complaint even less credible.
Biden spent much of the evening flashing his toothy grin in faux-amusement at supposed whoppers from Ryan. And when the vice president wasn’t smirking, he was faking up anger. A pol who vacillates between amusement and anger within a few seconds shouldn’t be taken very seriously.
Biden was clearly instructed by Axelrod and company to come out swinging, and he complied dutifully. But he mostly hit air. This debate probably won’t make the slightest bit of difference in the race. Desperate for a morale boost after Obama’s anemic performance, liberals no doubt found Biden’s aggressive approach welcome. But they can hardly claim victory. A debater who has to sigh and smirk that much can’t be winning.
Biden was the supposed elder statesman in the room, but the undignified theatrics undercut that image. They bordered on buffoonery. The foolish hothead in the debate was not the young congressman but the aged vice president, too restless and rude to let his opponent finish an answer. The fool who persists in his folly becomes wise, said the poet William Blake. Not in Joe Biden’s case. He remains the old fool. Ryan at one point even had to calm Biden down. Ryan told him to stop interrupting and took a dig at the post-Obama debate “duress” that explained his rude and hyperactive behavior.
After the congressman made a reference to tax cuts leading to higher tax revenues under John F. Kennedy, Biden saw a chance to play Lloyd Bentsen to Ryan’s Dan Quayle: “Oh, now you are Jack Kennedy?” But the moment fell flat. Biden is no Lloyd Bentsen and Ryan is no Dan Quayle.
Ryan wasn’t spectacular but he performed adequately. He had a few good lines at the ready to deflate Biden’s claims, such as “Watch out middle class: the tax bill is coming to you.”
Ryan seemed to get better as the debate wore on and certainly delivered a better closing statement than Biden. Ryan addressed viewers directly while Biden seemed to forget that that was an option.
Biden presented himself as the earnest populist but Ryan fits that bill far better. Biden came across as the ham pol and braggart who “says what he means” while lying through his teeth. In one of his more brazen deceptions, he said that the White House had no idea American officials in Libya wanted more security. Never mind that two witnesses appeared before Congress a day before the debate to establish that Hillary’s State Department knew of and rejected that request. Was Biden too busy preparing for the debate to catch that four-hour hearing?
Biden’s self-proclaimed honesty and sterling character also took a hit after he lied about the contraceptive mandate. You have nothing to fear from it, he told Catholics. If that is the case, Ryan replied, then “why are they suing you?”
Asked about his own Catholic faith, Biden said that he values it greatly and that it informs his “social doctrine.” At the same time, he can’t “impose” the Church’s opposition to the killing of unborn children on anyone (somehow that doesn’t “inform” his view of social justice).
Trying to show off and display his Catholic bona fides, he falsely declared that the Church’s teaching on abortion is “de fide,” as if opposition to abortion is a peculiarly Catholic and sectarian view. It is obviously not. No revelation is needed to know that killing a defenseless child is unjust, as Ryan suggested when he staked his pro-life stance on “reason and science.” Biden’s posturing as the Scranton-born champion of the little guy still doesn’t apply to the littlest ones in the womb.
About the Author
George Neumayr, a contributing editor to The American Spectator, is co-author, with Phyllis Schlafly, of the new book, No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (74) | Leave a comment
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Aristocat| 10.12.12 @ 6:41AM
Biden was of course his old self, Crazy Joe....But he lost his one asset, likeability.
Ryan was pathetic...One critic said, "Why are the moderator and that weird old man attacking the nice young man from accounting ?"
Ryan is just a bean-counter....He can't see the forest for the tress...He gets lost in minutiae...His
budget proposals won't work....Romney would have been better off picking Rubio or Ayotte.
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 7:21AM
What if he is "just" a Bean Counter?
Bean Counters are what we need right now.
Bean Counters are what keep "The Books" in Order.
That's why EVERY COMPANY has 1 or 2. Or 100. Or more.
As far as Not seeing the Forest for the Trees?
First you say that, and then you say that he's too interested in the Minutiae. Which is it, cause it can't be both.
This Country needs someone Boring. Someone ready to put his Nose to the Grindstone, and get things Fixed.
We NEED an Accountant and an Executive, to fix the Implosion brought upon this Country by the Medicine Show Con Man and the Circus Geek, that are in there, now.
That SHOW must not go on, anymore.
Otis, my man!| 10.12.12 @ 1:02PM
Well said TLP! Well said.
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 3:54PM
Get thee to The Contest.
It's in Berkley.
Wink, wink.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 10.12.12 @ 8:04PM
Biden was very rude, so next week's debate is the clincher; Obama loses and I'll vote third party or write-in a candidate.
I'd rather cut off my right arm and left leg to dance like Isadora Duncan than vote for Romney.
Ryan is the guy possessing core beliefs-- not Romney, who is a blatant, squishy opportunist and that is only what is good about Romney.
FL_Libertarian| 10.13.12 @ 8:32PM
The you will help Obama be re-elected.
ejstraw| 10.15.12 @ 2:14PM
guess they named you after the comic, insufferable brooks, or the tingly one at the NYT. listen clown, romney's resume; bain capital, governor of a 75% democRatic state and fixed the Olynpics. the guy who doesn't know how many states in the union community agitator and dumb-ass based on his performance.
Von Mises Jr| 10.12.12 @ 7:28AM
When your enemy is committing suicide, get out of the way.
Seventy million people tuned into the first Presidential debate. Many are less informed and otherwise often busy individuals that are open minded. This is why they are tuning in: to watch and learn.
In addition to looking like an old doting old fool, this turns the "War on Women" on its head. How many women have had obnoxious husbands or fathers? With a mother's instinct to protect her children, what loving mother could approve of crazy old Joe's treatment of the fine young man Paul Ryan?
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 9:31AM
The Contest is in Berkley.
John II| 10.12.12 @ 12:22PM
Berkeley, Tim.
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 3:55PM
Berkley, John II.
Figure it out.
Buck Ofama| 10.12.12 @ 12:30PM
The contest is over. Ovomit has been weighed in the balance, and found wanting.
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 3:56PM
No, Buck. Not that Contest.
Our Contest.
Go to Berkley, and check it out.
You won't be disappointed.
Al Adab| 10.12.12 @ 4:13PM
I tried it TLP, but either the wit or the point of it escapes me. ESL problem perhaps?
Dai Alanye | 10.12.12 @ 12:35PM
Ryan is much more than a policy wonk. He sees matters, and explains them to those who have the ability to listen, from a broad aspect. Further, the fact that he is somewhat more conservative than Romney will be useful in keeping Mitt to the right.
Biden succeeded last night in impressing thinking people with the fact that he's a fool, and a clownish one at that. No rational person can believe that Ryan lost the debate, although it's only realistic to add that many voters are far from rational.
Oldefarte| 10.12.12 @ 3:46PM
A "bean-counter"? As one of those of 35 years, the other guy has never possessed "likeability" unless of course your fan base is a bunch of labor union thugs in Delaware who get their chineys off by listening to 68 year old whinos with too-tight hair plugs do their immitations of Jack Nicholas axing his way through the front door while proclaiming "I'MMMMMM BACK" !!!!!!!!!!!!!
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 3:57PM
Get to the Contest.
You're wasting your Contest Talents on this site.
Go to Berkley.
JudithAnn| 10.12.12 @ 7:15AM
I hope this pathetic non-format debate is not an example of what to expect from the next non-moderators. But despite that, only the Confidently Ignorant will see this as a win for Biden.
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 7:23AM
So, you're saying that only The Muslim's base will see this as a Victory for Senator Brain-addled.
Okay.
Oldefarte| 10.12.12 @ 3:41PM
Possibly the same "Muslim's base" that staged a video riot in Benghazi recently??????
Racinrick| 10.12.12 @ 7:20AM
I thought Ryan did very well. How he managed to not slap Biden is a tribute to his character. That JB's best antics couldn't dislodge Ryan is testament to the futility of those tactics...and a continuance in my belief that in no way at any time could I control the constant shivering I would endure should JB hold the highest office of the land.
chuck| 10.12.12 @ 7:41AM
I would have loved to see Ryan just reach over, bitch-slap the crazy, old fool, and tell him to get control of himself. Either that or offer him a Xanax a shot of scotch.
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 9:33AM
You need to control Yourself.
Relax.
Go over to Berkley and play a game
John II| 10.12.12 @ 12:23PM
BERKELEY, dammit.
Al Adab| 10.12.12 @ 2:25PM
In re: Berkeley, Read John Coyne, The Kumquat Statement.
Butch| 10.12.12 @ 3:22PM
I think he already had one.
Anthony| 10.12.12 @ 7:52AM
Gee, I thought the debate was in Kentucky. Apparently I was misinformed, or they moved the debate to the Bronx Zoo.
Ryan was placed in a cage with the laughing heyena.
It was vintage Biteme, as we all expected him to be; nasty, disrespectful, condescending and of course, lying through those false choppers of his.
So this is the real face of Hope & Change, the real face of the Democrat Party, nasty, rotten, vicious liars to their core.
Stephie| 10.12.12 @ 8:19AM
Your description of this "debate" is why the likes of Chrissy Matthews and the rest of the jackals on MSNBC think Biden won. This is the kind governing and back and forth that they can relate to. This appeals to the basest of their base.
Romney will win on Nov. 6th.
Von Mises Jr| 10.12.12 @ 8:47AM
He not only disrespected Paul Ryan, he disrespected the viewers and conservatives and independents.
R Martin| 10.12.12 @ 9:18AM
It was more than disrespect; it was utter disdain. My hope is that in January, at the inaugration ceremony, Ryan simply turns to Biden and gives him a big smile.
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 9:34AM
There's something going on in Berkley.
That's according to the Intelligence that I have, so far.
John II| 10.12.12 @ 12:25PM
B-E-R-K-E-L-E-Y.
Berkeley, Berkeley, Berkeley!
"Sometimes I think I will just go mad." (Groucho Marx quoting Greta Garbo, 1929)
RCV| 10.12.12 @ 1:15PM
It takes TLP a while, John. As we say these days, he's "mentally challenged."
Truth to Power| 10.12.12 @ 3:28PM
This is amusing coming from the total idiot RCV. Say hi to your pretend wife and kids.
Oldefarte| 10.12.12 @ 3:38PM
At least he's "mentally" something or other, which completely leaves you out!!!!!!
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 4:00PM
Berkley.
How's that?
Better?
Get there, so I can Rip your entry a New One.
Buck Ofama| 10.12.12 @ 12:31PM
>That's according to the Intelligence that I have, so far.
Apparently, not much, either.
Von Mises Jr| 10.12.12 @ 2:11PM
Looks like you lose the argument Tim. You may have misspelled a word? I used the wrong word twice and the liberals concluded I'm defective.
Joey "Bite Me" was great last night. I never saw a more arrogant bully tell so many lies. Did you see the missal (or was missile) that the Iranians are test firing that Joey says they don't have.
He said they don't even have enough fossil (or is fissile) material yet, so chill out Pauly.
Tim, we have to get one of them there government checks so we have time to check our spelling and dicksionary.
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 4:02PM
"THEIR" Government Checks.
Von Mises Jr| 10.12.12 @ 11:25AM
Obama and Biden will not be at the inauguration. I forget which President left town before his successor was sworn in to Office. But to expect two low-class communist organizers to show respect to the Office after defiling it for four years is beyond logic.
Robbie| 10.12.12 @ 6:21PM
Jimmy Carter
Al Adab| 10.12.12 @ 9:30AM
Jr:
Biden, and all The Left, do disrespect Conservatives. They intend to Rule remember? After all, they are our betters more suited to decide matters for us plebs if only they could get us to quite trying to think for ourselves.
I don't know who "won or lost" but they both revealed their character pretty clearly.
John II| 10.12.12 @ 12:28PM
Well, even CNN viewers gave Ryan a four-point edge. I guess that means he cleaned Biden's clock.
Jade12| 10.12.12 @ 10:49AM
Exactly!
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 4:04PM
Contest at Berkley, Jade.
That's right, Berkley!
Why do I care if I spell that Liberal Hellhole wrong?
They deserve no better.
Boar Hunter| 10.12.12 @ 12:14PM
Biden's debate "performance" was not intended to win over anyone operating at an intelligence level above that of the Obama phone lady.
It was directed to liberal peasants, inthralled by the promise of shiny beads and trinkets.
Biden was simply allowing them to view the spectacle of the liberal battle against the evil Republicans who want to place them back into chains of slavery.
As long as they don't have to work, they are content to suck their crust of bread wait for fulfillment of a promise that will never come.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 10.12.12 @ 8:02AM
Much of what has been said here today was what I observed last night. If you were disposed to supporting Obama already, Biden parroted your talking points and snarled on your behalf.
If you believed (like I do) that Obama and his policies are a disaster for America, Ryan's steady fact-filled presentation provided a strong credible prescription for getting us off the wrong road that Obama and company are taking us down.
If you weren't sure, you saw a blustering blowhard of a buffoon trying to filibuster a confident respectful opponent. Few in this category will likely point to Biden and say "This is what we need to fix what is wrong". Most will look at Biden and think "That is what is wrong with where we have been going".
Al Adab| 10.12.12 @ 9:31AM
Good use of filibuster. Describes the performance fairly well. Old tactic of The Left to just shout down the opposition.
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 9:41AM
You should see what somebody wrote about you guys in Berkley.
John II| 10.12.12 @ 12:26PM
Okay, I give up. Where's "Berkley"?
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 4:08PM
John. One of today's stories is about Berkley, or however the hell it's spelled.
Go there.
Al Adab| 10.12.12 @ 4:29PM
Berkeley used to be on the east side of San Fran bay before the Iranian fishing boat, the one with the nuke on board, sailed into the harbor. But that was after the election since they needed those bay area votes to deliver CA to the DEMs.
Hardcard| 10.12.12 @ 8:03AM
The career crook biteme had a new pair of choppers in for effect. He is a disgrace, you're no jack kennedy joe your more like that other great Catholic ted kennedy.
Cobalt| 10.12.12 @ 9:04AM
Did Biden do anything last night to bring the undecided voters, the independents who will decide this election, over to his side. No.
KyMouse| 10.12.12 @ 10:01AM
As I said at another thread, pro-life people should stop saying “I believe life begins at conception…”
It is not a matter of “belief” or religious faith.
It is a scientific fact.
On page one of The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, a textbook written for medical students (not seminary students), we read that “Human development is a continuous process that begins when an ovum from a female is fertilized by a sperm from a male…
“A zogote is the beginning of a new human being…”
My office has other embryology books that say the same thing.
That isn’t religious faith. It’s science.
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 4:10PM
KyMouse. Get to the Contest.
Berkeley.
(You all happy, now?)
William L. Gensert| 10.12.12 @ 10:16AM
This administration does not lend itself well to the split screen and the VP might very well need psychiatric care.
His smile was frightening. For most of the night Joe Biden looked like the Joker -- Nicholson not Ledger.
Read more of my article: http://www.americanthinker.com.....z295uCw2Wd
Von Mises Jr| 10.12.12 @ 11:27AM
I went to sleep last night thinking of Biden as the Joker. It also made sense that Mitt even looks like "Batman" and Paul Ryan looks much like "Robin."
I could not remember the other characters to assign one to Obama. But you chose a good one in the Riddler and I think the analogy is extremely good.
“The mind of a criminal like Riddler’s is a sponge which soaks up many strange facts.” - Batman
Enchanted| 10.12.12 @ 2:40PM
I call obama and biden, the marxist and the joker
TLP| 10.12.12 @ 4:11PM
You're wasting your talents, here.
C. Vernon Crisler | 10.12.12 @ 10:32AM
Excellent summary and analysis of the debate, George.
Bill8472| 10.12.12 @ 12:01PM
The question about religious views "informing" American politicians' political conduct is a red herring, designed to falsely put people on the spot.
One can have his own religious or moral value system, but when one is elected to office, one's job is to put his own values and morality aside and do what his constitutency wants. If one can't be flexible enough to bend his own morality and beliefs to act properly as his constituents' agent, then he ought not to run for office.
Only when it isn't clear what his constituents want is the elected American politician free to allow his religio-moral views to "inform" his political conduct.
Bill8472| 10.12.12 @ 1:29PM
John F. Kennedy, as a Presidential candidate, answered a similar question about him obeying the Pope or the Constitution 'way back in 1960 by saying something to the effect that he would do what the Constitution requires, since as President he would be obliged to enforce that document, not his religious obligations as a Catholic.
John II| 10.12.12 @ 12:19PM
"Biden was the supposed elder statesman in the room, but the undignified theatrics undercut that image. They bordered on buffoonery."
Bordered?
gene| 10.12.12 @ 1:29PM
An Old Man ranting "They have no missles" over and over and over.
They do have missiles, Joseph, but
IT DOES NOT MATTER.
1. One Suicide Bomber.
2. One Nuclear Warhead.
3. One Suitcase.
Do the Math, Joseph, use some COMMON SENSE 101, and realize like the rest of the Grownups in the U.S. of A., they do not NEED a missle.
What part of this do you not understand, Joseph?
Montrux1| 10.12.12 @ 1:35PM
I was hoping that Ryan would turn to Biden and calmly say "Look, I know you're excited about them letting you out after a week in the attic, but pleae quit interrupting and snickering."
Oldefarte| 10.12.12 @ 3:34PM
No he should have instead reached over the table, grabbed him by his hairplugs and put five knuckles in his piehole [and then declared, NO STOP INTERRUPTING ME]!!!!
WhiteBikerTrash| 10.12.12 @ 3:22PM
If a wise man has an argument with a foolish man, the fool only rages or laughs, and there is no rest. — Proverbs 29:9
The final reports are in! Even MSNBC agrees Joe Biden moped the floor!!!
With Joe Biden!
Oldefarte| 10.12.12 @ 3:31PM
"earnest populist"? Come on! This guy is nothing but a typical lying Democrat DIRT BAG who couldn't tell the truth with a Bible shoved up his backend. Give me a break! These putrid charletons pomposely strut around dispensing government benefits to their indigent constituents that are paid for by taxpayers like some excrement on a stick, but are simply worthless POS!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReaganConservative| 10.12.12 @ 11:31PM
The point of Biden's mission in this so called debate, was to embarrass, humiliate, mock, and otherwise use every Saul Alinsky radical political trick in the book, to publically destroy Paul Ryan, to bully him, to mock him, to humiliate him, to intimidate him, ie; what Biden is all about and good at- public character assassination.
This is what Biden is good at with 40 years of experience.. Thus Biden did not come to the debate to win an intellectual debate of substance.. The question is, did he succeed.. The answer is no..
VP debates have never determined Presidential outcomes, and this one will be no different.
Am.Sp. - Jeffrey Lord, quote-
"Ronald Reagan was not impressed with Joe Biden.
In fact, writing in his diary in his usual abbreviated style on June 15, 1987, Reagan described Biden this way:
"He's smooth but pure demagog - out to save America from Reagan Doctrine."
That was a year after Reagan made a note about Biden and Senators Ted Kennedy and Howard Metzenbaum, who were busy making vitriolic attacks on TV about Reagan's nominee for Chief Justice of the United States, then Associate Justice William Rehnquist. Wrote Reagan: "They really are a lynch mob." unquote
-
Biden hasn't changed 1 iota from what he was then, to what he still is- a political character assassination hack, which toxic obnoxious fumes emanate from him like stink from a dead carcass.
gene| 10.13.12 @ 10:02AM
" Biden not know....
Biden only pawn in the game of life...."
Mark30339| 10.14.12 @ 8:05AM
George, with the caption "Bluster and Loose Talk," you have finally landed on a topic upon which you can write with skillful distinction.
Gueppebarre| 10.14.12 @ 7:19PM
How 'bout all that straight talk of yours while you were plagiarizing Neil Kinnock's speech, Joe?
You frigging, BS-ing, loud-mouthed snob - go screw your no-count self, you pompous fool!
Gueppebarre| 10.14.12 @ 9:06PM
I left out "lying." All apologies for the omission.