The Woody Allen V.P Debate
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Joe Biden shows up at the debate and the media and Democrats declare such a victory
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Woody Allen famously said “80% of success is showing up.” Little did he know that he was also describing the dumb-downed standard for Vice-President Joe Biden at the 2012 Vice-Presidential debate.
Smarting from last week’s sub-par debate performance by President Obama, Democrats and their media enablers set the standard for Mr. Biden’s success at the very high level of…….showing up and being boisterous, substance not required. This was reinforced today. Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor of the magazine The Nation, so much as said that this morning on The Brian Lehrer Show on New York City public radio when stating “He helped [the Obama campaign]…..Joe showed up.”
Apparently, Joe Biden doing his smiling version of Al Gore’s huffing and puffing at George W. Bush’s comments in the 2000 Presidential debates is a worthy substitute for substantive debate. And this man is a heartbeat away from the Presidency.
Democrats say that the fact that the Vice-President found his way to the debates and flailed is victory in and of itself
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But lo, the Vice-President met such low standard, with nothing more.
When Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Ryan pointed out the administration’s muddled foreign policy that sends mixed signals to our allies and foes, Mr. Biden responded “that’s a bunch of malarkey” (a good line for the movie The Quiet Man but not overly germane when discussing U.S. policy). When defending the administration’s fumbling of the Benghazi consulate attack, the Vice-President wandered off the path and said “Governor Romney, before he knew the facts, before he even knew that our ambassador was killed, he was out making a political statement which was panned by the media around the world.” So Mr. Biden’s yardstick is the world media. Does such include Al Jazeera and the Chinese controlled state media? Kudos to the moderator, Martha Raddatz, for walking him back to the original topic of Libya and the attack (RADDATZ: “Can we talk — let me go back to Libya.” BIDEN: “Yeah, sure.”)
Mr. Biden went on to exclaim to further criticism “This is a bunch of stuff” and give a tutorial on Irish lexicon.
But perhaps the best exchange of the night was when Mr. Ryan said “I think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don’t come out of your mouth the right way” to which the Vice-President replied “But I always say what I mean.” REPEAT: And this man is a heartbeat away from the Presidency.
All of which leads to how the Obama campaign cannot possibly win on the merits or the substance, and they know it. Hence its allegations of various Republican wars on women, the middle class and distant galaxies. Anything but discussing the past 4 dismal years or what Mr. Obama plans to do for the next 4 (essentially more of the same).
So it can be conceded that if non-substantive flailing is what won the debate, Mr. Biden is the victor. But the voters will likely see the seriousness and substance of Mr. Ryan as what matters, and they’ll reward him and Mr. Romney for such next month.
-I.M. Windee
