First, enjoy some Bidenisms from the days of yore.
Prediction number one, unfortunately, the above pictured Joe Biden will not make an appearance at the debate. They gave Joe and unprecedented 7 days off from the rigors of electioneering so that he might be able to sober up and prepare for this event. For anyone who watched the 2 hour piece of dishonesty entitled, “Game Change,” that was produced by HBO Films know exactly what this means. You can always tell, eventually, what tricks Democrats pull. Eventually, they will accuse Republicans of pulling these tricks, unfortunately it will be before we had even heard of it or though it possible. Nancy Pelosi’s term Astro Turf is one example of this. Nancy labeled the Tea Party, “Astro Turf,” which no one on our side understood, until she explained that it meant manufacturing the appearance of support by busing in paid protesters, supporters, and falsifying news reports in order to fool the public into believing that there existed a bandwagon effect. Sure enough, about a week later, Andrew Breitbart was able to elicit a confession at a protest that the activists a)had no idea what they were protesting, and b) were paid a decent wage by an ACORN group, which still exist by the way, for their protesting services.
In the movie, “Game Change,” Sarah Palin was accused of memorizing 45 minutes worth of script in order to merely pivot to her prepared remarks as the answer to any question, and then just recite what she had been taught to recite, similar to a trained monkey who had mastered somehow the miracle of speech. Remember, in the game of, “is the Republican evil, old, or stupid,” nothing fits Sarah Palin except for the label of stupid. After watching the movie, I took a stroll down memory lane and watched the debate again. Guess what, if anyone appeared to have simply answered questions with prose that existed irrespective of the questions entirely, it was Joe Biden. I do not remember if Joltin Joe needed a full week to prepare in 2008, but it would not surprise me at all. Joe is a polished professional politician with decades of experience. He knows how to hold it together for an hour and a half when he needs to.
This debate will be the same format as the debate we saw last week, but the time segments, supposedly, will be 5 minutes shorter. There were several times during the first debate where Jim Lehrer was accused of losing control and not doing enough to stop the beating that Barack Obama was taking, but that is what the open format is designed to do. It is the candidates being thrust headlong into a substantive discussion where they themselves have control over which parts of their message they feel important to put forward according to the issues that the campaigns feel are important to discuss. It eliminates the ability to plant narratives by either campaign, and allows a more reasoned response to the opening premise of the segment, even if that opening premise starts off slanted.
Prediction number two, Paul Ryan will shine regardless of the preprogrammed memorized speech of Joe Biden. This is the exact type of format that lends itself to the wonkish intellect of someone who is a budget hawk. Paul Ryan has always shone like the sun when discussing facts, figures, and any subject where detail is warranted. His destruction of Barack Obama’s fairy tale world of the Obamacare’s impact on the budget is still one of my favorite YouTube clips of all time.
Prediction number three, Joe Biden will try to land his knock out punch with the foreign policy discussion. After last week’s ass kicking suffered by his boss, the pressure will be on Joe Biden to land some heavy blows against the R squared ticket. Joe has engaged in some trash talking this week, as the entirety of Team Zero realize the damage done last week. The problem is, where to attack Paul Ryan. A man who’s true calling may very well have been as an accountant, there is perhaps no one in Washington D.C. who can go toe to toe with Ryan on substantive facts. He is a wonk’s wonk if you will. Biden attempting to follow up on the promises of his trash talk in those areas where Ryan is strong can only end in another disastrous evening for the Democrat Party as a whole. There are enough competent Democrat Party apparatchiks left to see the folly in this. If Ryan has a perceived weakness in this debate forum, it is in the realm of foreign policy.
Foreign Policy gravitas was always supposed to be the strength that Joe Biden brought to Team Zero. He spent much of his decades long career on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Never mind that Joe has been wrong on every single issue which presented itself, including a proclamation that the War in Iraq was lost. There are some really dumb people out there who believe that perception is reality. Biden will want to avoid every other area of debate, but will feel that he has an insurmountable advantage here, and is just dumb enough to believe that perception really is reality. So, even when the Obama foreign policy has so obviously collapsed to the point where each day’s horrendous news only serves to bury Team Zero even further, look for this to be the topic upon which Joe makes his stand and attempts to land the veritable hay maker.
Prediction number four, Paul Ryan will make Joe Biden look pretty silly with that attempted hay maker. Just like in the real world of boxing, when a fighter lands the hay maker, it can be pretty devastating. When he misses, it has the opposite effect. The problem for Joe Biden and his expertise on all things relating to foreign affairs, the policies enacted by his team have resulted in nothing short of unmitigated disaster. Yesterday we learned that Christopher Stevens’ request for more security to help deal with the tensions in Benghazi actually resulted in the Obama State Department’s removal of the security personnel that did exist there. Over 50 U.S. Embassies have been torched over the past month. We learned that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a group of unemployed social workers looking for people to help. We also learned that the assassination of Osama Bin Laden did not signal the end of the war on terror, even though this promise has still been asserted as recently as today.
Prediction number five, Martha Raddatz will be much quicker on the uptake to come to the aid of Joe Biden when he needs a life line. Twice during the Bamster’s first debate, he needed to suggest to Jim Lehrer that perhaps a particular topic was not worthy of his taking a beating over, and suggested that Lehrer move things along. Raddatz will have been briefed ahead of time I’m sure, as to how important it is to team Obama that she not allow Joe Biden to take too great a beating, and that she should intervene when ever it looks like Paul Ryan may be able to land a second blow in any exchange. Raddatz will likewise join the debate as an Obama team surrogate who will actively participate in the challenges of any statement made by Paul Ryan.
In case you’re interested.
