So - the VP debate - didn't see it, have no intention of watching a replay and therefore must rely on what others have to say about it. The gist seems to be: Ryan was good, but not brilliant - I think I was expecting brilliant and so I'm a little disappointed by that - still, since it was his first time on the national stage in that kind of high stakes setting good but not brilliant may actually count as something of a win - or maybe I've misjudged his talents - but I was expecting a decisive win so, yeah, a bit of a disappointment there.
As for Biden, I take it he came across as an arrogant jerk, looking down upon the opposition with bilious and sometimes buffonish contempt. The impression seems to be this replacing of argument with 'attitude' may play well to the uber left base that very much wants to cover its collapsing flank with the shallow defense of confusing disdain for keen insight, but that undecideds and independents are possibly going to be turned off by such a performance [this opinion anecdotally confirmed to me by overhearing a conversation between two people who I would consider unaffiliated moderates wherein Biden's act was described as 'creepy'].
Sounds then like it was a bit of a wash - the media will undoubtedly do its best to spin a Biden victory but the polls may ultimately suggest a slight advantage to Ryan [CNN poll supports that belief - 48% to 44% 'win' for Ryan] - I was hoping for more, but I'll take it. Certainly, this somewhat disappointing result is made entirely tolerable by Romney's drubbing of Obama in preceding debate - and maybe that was part of the thinking here, ie for Ryan to play it a bit safe, to not swing for the fences but rather just try and draw Biden into saying something foolish, which possibly he did as regards the Libya fiasco [and there's an upside here in that Romney now has a pretty good idea of the tone and tack Obama will be adopting or at the very least approximating in their next encounter - although I believe the next debate is a 'town hall' type format, which pretty much kills chances of a real debate happening, which helps Obama - he'll have the big shovel out that night for all the bullshit he'll be throwing around - I'm sure the Times has the 'Dear Leader recaptures the magic' story already written - David Brooks is in pre-quiver mode, hungering for another look at those perfect pants].
[yeah, just saw the quickly released GOP 'Joe Biden is laughing, are you?' ad which I think is all of the debate I need to see - Ryan comes across as good, but not great - Biden not only comes across as creepy, he verges a bit on demented. Jesus - bad stuff - guess it's wrong of me to judge whole debate on a few clips but I gotta believe if the uber left is trying to spin Biden's performance into a 'win' then they truly have detached themselves from anything resembling a coherent reality]
