My thoughts on the debate: What Biden did was exactly what the Democrat party anticipated, but how effective was that demeanor to the VP and his party? The general feelings amongst twitter users during the course of the debate was that VP Biden was disrespectful and bullying. I Beg to disagree. Political debate is a battle of words, minds and attitude. What mattered to me was this; the facts were often times brushed underneath Biden's huge smile, fake data, assumptions, and deliberate misrepresentation of the Ryan/Romney's policies and positions. Fact-checkers have debunked some of the things Biden said, but the damage left a lasting impression.
The moderator did the Democrats a huge favor by starting the debate with the question on Libya. This strategy works for the Democrats because Biden didn't have to defend Obama's foreign policy then later forced to defend the mass failure of his policy in Libya where three Americans, including an ambassador, were slaughtered. That would have destroyed any credibility on the part of the Democrat party and the VP. To open this debate with this gave Biden an opportunity to say we weren't provided the best intel. But then he lied all along - to a nation already critical of the government's handling of this whole incident.
The moderate didn't follow up, or pressuring Biden over the Benghazi attack which was apparently a failure of the Obama administration. Even Ryan - he should have forced Biden to admit that the Obama administration deliberately misled the American people. This is the administration that brought up Osama Bin Laden's death every time foreign policy is discussed, but when it comes to taking responsibility for the gross negligence resulted in the death of an American diplomat and his staff members, they quickly blamed CIA. The moderate and Ryan failed to press Biden on this and I am sure this doesn't help Americans who wanted to know what happened that night.
Secondly, Joe Biden also lied about his votes for the War Against Terror bill which gave the president the authority to declare war on Afghanistan government - the Taliban. For a while, Biden tried to paint himself as a newcomer to Washington, D.C. Bellow is Biden's votes for the war as reported by Weekly Standard Magazine:
Ryan's weakness was that he was too nice. He should have been aggressive, taking it to Biden in an effective way. Besides, Biden have his own way with figures or data. He would throw numbers out there to make a point that is not there just to make a nice sound byte for his Democrat base. He should have been called out on a few things including this: He claimed that there was no credible information from the intelligence community over terrorist attacks on 9/11 and that their reaction was based on the available information. Information and testimonies of those on the ground in Libya prior to the 9/11 terror fiasco, didn't support Biden's claim. And in the proceeding argument, Biden hit Ryan harder claiming that Iran doesn't have any weapons; not only claiming, he said he was certain about it. The stark contrast here is that US has an embassy and a team of diplomats in Libya, none in Tehran yet he was so sure about the Iranian issue.
Today, the professor of Political Science at the School of Government in University of Virginia said that though Biden may had a strong debate, the only one that can rescue Obama is Obama himself. The Biden momentum has been - in my view - cannibalized by his own arrogance and his demeanor.
The next debate will be critical, but the damage is already done. The most important debate is the first debate - it gives voters the perception of who the better, the stronger, and the credible candidate is. With that, Romney edges Obama on this; he appeared presidential and likeable - two of the attributes voters gave Obama since his election in 2008. That likability is dwindled rapidly and may well vanished before the election of November, 2012.
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