[jdeegan]

Ryan seems to be doing well. Is the older guy coming across as being flaccid? Ryan seems to be energetic. Flaccid is really bad.

[Bbradley62]

It's your imagination.

[aguahombre]

Biden gets a "A" for use of the medium. The split-screen TV coverage showing both candidates while one is speaking allows him to produce a patronizing laughing face to ridicule the substance of his opponent's argument. This will fail to impress anyone capable of seeing through it.

edit: I should have said, "...unless they don't want to see through it."

This post has been edited by aguahombre: 2012-October-12, 08:15

[Phil]

No one got slaughtered.

Ryan came across as wonkish and cold and needed to take off his policy hat. Plus he looked green (not experience - his complexion).

Biden was condescending with the cheesy smiles and forced laughter. Mary Matalin compared it to Gore's sighing and she isn't too far off.

I don't think I'd like either as president.

[PassedOut]

I thought that both accomplished their objectives. Ryan's job was to hold the base while Romney segues to the middle. Biden reenergized the democrats.

[Vampyr]

 PassedOut, on 2012-October-11, 21:30, said:

I thought that both accomplished their objectives. Ryan's job was to hold the base while Romney segues to the middle.

This seems like a cynical and transparent strategy. Romney would be in charge; Ryan's verbal crumbs tossed to the far-right loonies are completely worthless.

[kenrexford]

I'm not following the take that Biden did his job. If one team in football gets three touchdowns in the third quarter to take a two touchdown lead, you really don't want to spend five minutes of the fourth quarter only losing four yards of field position.

[Bbradley62]

If a basketball team is leading early in the second half and its star player get hurt and requires medical attention, it might be the job of the rest of the team to simply keep the game sufficiently close until the star returns. That was Biden's job.

[kenrexford]

 Bbradley62, on 2012-October-11, 22:23, said:

If a basketball team is leading early in the second half and its star player get hurt and requires medical attention, it might be the job of the rest of the team to simply keep the game sufficiently close until the star returns. That was Biden's job.

Funny thing, though, is that this post-debate goal that was accomplished was not the pre-debate goal that we were told was needed and expected.

[hrothgar]

Useful summary of what the bloggers had to say

http://andrewsulliva...-blog-reax.html

[RMB1]

From context, I guess "Biden" isn't a contraction of Bin Laden.

[kenrexford]

 RMB1, on 2012-October-12, 08:38, said:

From context, I guess "Biden" isn't a contraction of Bin Laden.

Biden in LA?

[luke warm]

 hrothgar, on 2012-October-12, 08:01, said:

Useful summary of what the bloggers had to say

http://andrewsulliva...-blog-reax.html

yet the polls seem to show that most viewers thought ryan won... an early one even showed a 20% gap... i thought ryan missed at least two opportunities, one on libya when biden was either lying or (maybe more likely) left out of the loop... even if left out, he had to know about state's testimony... the other was when biden was hammering on taxing the wealthy...

ryan could have kept on him about the first two years, and why not raise taxes then... the aim, of course, would be to get him to say what obama said at the time - that you don't raise taxes when the economy is that bad... then ryan could have rightly said "but it was growing twice as fast then as it is now... it was either a good idea then or a bad one now"

biden also took some heat on twitter from even liberalish journalists about his overall lack of decorum

Piers Morgan ✔@piersmorgan Joe, seriously, STOP SMIRKING. This is serious stuff. Be Vice-Presidential. #PMTdebate

kirsten powers ✔@kirstenpowers10 Biden laughing while Martha talks about Iran getting the bomb is just weird.

ErikWemple @ErikWemple Biden really pushing it with his interruptions.#vpdebate

Philip Klein @philipaklein If Biden's strategy was to come off like a complete jerk, he's succeeding brilliantly.

[Vampyr]

 RMB1, on 2012-October-12, 08:38, said:

From context, I guess "Biden" isn't a contraction of Bin Laden.

What a hateful suggestion. Obama is one letter away from Osama, right?

I hope that the campaign does not sink to the level of playing "funny" games with the candidates' names. Especially because Obama/Biden clearly have the short straw in this case, and I would very much like to see them win.

[kenrexford]

 luke warm, on 2012-October-12, 10:43, said:

yet the polls seem to show that most viewers thought ryan won... an early one even showed a 20% gap... i thought ryan missed at least two opportunities, one on libya when biden was either lying or (maybe more likely) left out of the loop... even if left out, he had to know about state's testimony... the other was when biden was hammering on taxing the wealthy... ryan could have kept on him about the first two years, and why not raise taxes then... the aim, of course, would be to get him to say what obama said at the time - that you don't raise taxes when the economy is that bad... then ryan could have rightly said "but it was growing twice as fast then as it is now... it was either a good idea then or a bad one now"

Yes, but what is more important? What the people who vote think, or what the bloggers think?

[lalldonn]

 kenrexford, on 2012-October-12, 10:47, said:

Yes, but what is more important? What the people who vote think, or what the bloggers think?

Or what kenrexford thinks lukewarm thinks the people who vote think?

What I saw is that more public response was split almost entirely over party lines. Slightly more Republicans watched the debate and slightly more people thought Ryan won. I think such an outcome is better for Republicans since if nothing else it suggests they are more interested and engaged at this point. My own take was Ryan was very slick at evading the actual questions being asked, and I'm not surprised that some people were put off by Biden's frequent interupting. But it's not surprising that both sides are happy.

[kenrexford]

 lalldonn, on 2012-October-12, 10:55, said:

Or what kenrexford thinks lukewarm thinks the people who vote think?

What I saw is that more public response was split almost entirely over party lines. Slightly more Republicans watched the debate and slightly more people thought Ryan won. I think such an outcome is better for Republicans since if nothing else it suggests they are more interested and engaged at this point. My own take was Ryan was very slick at evading the actual questions being asked, and I'm not surprised that some people were put off by Biden's frequent interupting. But it's not surprising that both sides are happy.

I assume that you know that my questions were tongue in cheek?

[jonottawa]

I thought Biden won a decision, but I agree that the smiling and laughing was too much. I'm not surprised that the prediction markets didn't move much either way during/after the debate.

I thought Raddatz did a good job, but then I read this and I have to agree that the questions she chose (and the inaccurate premises they contained) weren't the best. But that's the US mass media for you.

I agree that we should all hope that neither of these guys ever becomes POTUS.

[kenberg]

As mentioned on another thread, I was at the beach. I figured they could run the show without me. I am really sorry to hear of the theatrics from the Biden side. I thought Gore did himself a great deal of harm with his exaggerated sighs, and then seemed to be trying to physically impose himself in the following debate. He looked very childish both times. Perhaps I'll try to watch this one, I recorded it, but it sounds as if I won't much like what I see.

The water was great.

[luke warm]

 kenberg, on 2012-October-12, 14:18, said:

The water was great.

i'm glad you had fun... as for the debate, there was a count done and biden interrupted ryan 82 times (or so)... also, and this will be denied by many here so you can judge for yourself, the moderator cut ryan off quite often