Ryan Drew Blood Early, Then Cruised to Victory Over Unsteady, Flustered Biden
John Tamny
10/12/2012 @ 1:52AM
About halfway through last night’s debate between Congressman Paul Ryan and Vice President Joe Biden, the VP’s answers – and his unsteady countenance – revealed someone who felt he’d lost. Biden’s pre-debate spin was that he would enter in attack mode, eager to make up for his boss’s universally panned performance the week before.
The problem for Biden was that Ryan drew blood fairly early, thus making any attacks seem desperate. In that case, wobbly after a few blows from Ryan that he couldn’t effectively answer, Biden’s tone took on a yelling quality; the yelling an attack substitute for substantive points that he was unable to make.
Compare this to Congressman Ryan. Whether viewers agreed with him or not, he seemed bigger than the debate, and his slightly unhinged partner. Whatever the question, Ryan had a quick answer or answers, and replies came in a calm, measured tone.
Even worse for Biden, and one can imagine President Obama cringing from afar, as Ryan scored points, Biden took to laughing in an uncontrollable way. Well aware that he lacked a mind quick enough to respond to the myriad jabs of his more nimble competitor, Biden presumably felt his laughs and smirks would effectively communicate what he couldn’t in terms of words, and well-crafted arguments.
The shame about the debate was that Martha Raddatz perhaps focused too much on foreign policy. Sorry, but a country full of the war weary, not to mention the economically scared, seemingly wanted a more substantive debate that covered the economic issues more in depth. As for Ryan, what a shame that he had to promote his own boss’s mostly trivial economic plan that amounts to ideas that are economically backwards (“energy independence”), potentially economy crushing (cracking down on China), and somewhat facile, though possible with a real economic plan (“studies show our tax plan will create 7 million jobs”). What fun if Ryan and Biden could have debated one another on the issues, rather than debate one another through the eyes of the candidates they’re serving.
The debate began with the situation in Libya, and the murderous attacks in Benghazi last month. Biden’s clearly more comfortable when the discussion centers on foreign policy, and there he probably helped himself with his assertion that (all quotes paraphrased) “the last thing we need is another war.” Of course the problem for Biden is that most people perceive Ryan as an economics-focused politician, so when he was quick to reply in rapid succession that “It took President Obama two weeks to acknowledge that we suffered a terrorist attack”, that “Obama kept blaming YouTube videos for it”, and that “we’re watching on our tv screens the unraveling of Obama’s foreign policy”, Ryan in a sense exceeded expectations.
And then when the conversation turned to Iran, Biden at least initially revealed a less agile mind, attacking back with something incomprehensible about what Obama was doing to neutralize Iran vis-à-vis his dealings with China and Russia. Biden essentially got stuck, anyone who’s done tv before perhaps felt for him, but in the moment he looked flustered. Worse, Ryan came back with another quick strike along the lines of “This was the anniversary of 9/11, yet we didn’t even protect Benghazi.”
Back to Iran, Biden responded reasonably that we probably overrate Iran’s nuclear capabilities, but any rationality revealed was quickly erased by his obnoxious countenance in the chair. Television provided split screens, so while viewers saw Ryan calmly responding to the questions that came his way, on the other half of the screen they saw a batty older man laughing obnoxiously at someone who, even if voters disagree with him, comes off as very reasonable. The contrast can’t have worked in Biden’s favor.
Moving to unemployment, that’s when Ryan truly drew blood, and it could be argued that Biden never recovered. Indeed, in the world of hyper-spin in which both politicians reside, success in debates is to a not insignificant degree a function of exceeding expectations; that, or simply surprising one’s opponent.
Biden did no such thing. As if on auto-pilot, he attacked Ryan and Romney as shills for the rich who, in order to reduce unemployment, would cut taxes on the wealthy by bleeding the middle class. So while it’s certainly true that relaxing the burden on the most productive is easily the most stimulative tax cut of all, Biden covered no new ground with his exhibition of willful blindness about which tax cuts are most effective. Also, it should be remembered that even George McGovern realized from his own presidential campaign that Americans, right or wrong, often think they’ll eventually be rich. In that case, it’s not a good idea to attack a class that Americans, by virtue of their optimism, think they’ll eventually be a part of.
Ryan, on the other hand, went with the element of surprise. Rather than answer Biden’s nauseating arguments in front of a moderator who clearly sided with Biden, he began with “My opponent and I grew up in similar places. Joe’s from Scranton, I’m from Janesville, and Joe, do you know what the rate of unemployment is in Scranton?” Biden stuttered a bit, said he did, but Ryan answered for him that it’s 10%, and “Do you know what it was when you got into office? 8%.” Devastating on its own, plus Biden wasn’t ready for it.
Biden came back with mutterings about Romney attacking the 47%, the “47% are my parents and my neighbors”, and while such a response might have been effective in isolation, it landed with a thud mainly because everyone knew it was coming. Debates are once again often about the element of surprise, yet so eager was the Biden camp to land a punch that Obama neglected to throw the week before, and that Ryan surely knew was coming, that they didn’t take into account how easily Ryan could deflect the highly telegraphed jab. Specifically, and with Biden’s legendary foot-in-mouth disease in mind, Ryan calmly responded, “With respect to the 47% quote, I think the vice president knows better than most what it’s like when words come out wrong.”
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