Thread: Wh's Watching Biden/Ryan Debates ?

Bring Back Jim Lehrer
By Kyle Peterson on 10.12.12 @ 2:15AM


Thursday's VP debate moderator, ABC's Martha Raddatz, has earned as many plaudits as Jim Lehrer earned jeers for his performance at last week's debate.

Politico's coverage declares matter-of-factly: "Tonight’s winner: Martha Raddatz." The New York Times editorial page editor called her performance "astonishing." On this point I must dissent.

I've seen some conservatives complain that Raddatz failed to leash Joe Biden and allowed the vice president to interrupt Paul Ryan time and time again. That's a fair point, I think. But beyond that, some of the questioning was just bizarre.

For instance: "Mr. Ryan, I want to ask you about -- the Romney campaign talks a lot about no apologies. He has a book called called 'No Apologies.' Should the U.S. have apologized for Americans burning Korans in Afghanistan? Should the U.S. apologize for U.S. Marines urinating on Taliban corpses?"

Ryan's response was: "Oh, gosh, yes." The correct response is: "What the hell kind of a question is that?"

And don't forget the query near the end: "If you are elected, what could you both give to this country as a man, as a human being, that no one else could?"

Give me a break. That could have been ripped straight from an SNL parody debate. I was going to make a joke about beauty pageants, except that the questions we ask our Miss America are apparently less vacuous than those we ask our Vice President:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=k-LGezgoh3E

http://spectator.org/blog/2012/10/12...ack-jim-lehrer

Friday, October 12, 2012
The problem with letting Joe be Joe

After the first debate, the Democratic base was moaning and crying out for a more aggressive demeanor from the Obama/Biden team. Well, they got that last night. But the problem was that it was Biden being the aggressive one. And by letting Joe be Joe, they got a storyline that is distracting from their message. He smirked, interrupted, and laughed his way through the debate. The RNC is reporting that Biden interrupted Ryan 82 times during the 90 minute debate while Ryan interrupted Biden six times. So Biden came off as condescending and insulting.

That demeanor might play very well with the Democratic base and, at least on Twitter, they were energized and very happy to see Biden take the fight to Ryan. But at this point in the election, Obama shouldn't be playing to his base. He needs to get that small percentage of voters who are undecided. And Biden's demeanor was such a turnoff that I don't see his bringing in many of that group over to his side. I suspect that Biden's behavior would be especially unappealing to undecided women.

On substance, impartial observers might score the debate a draw and the Obama team needed more than a draw. However, I predict that a lot of the post-debate conversation will be about Biden's demeanor rather than the substance of what he had to say. That was certainly the response on Twitter from even mainstream reporters. Even liberal late-night comedians will not be able to ignore Biden's smirks and interruptions. And that will become the basic storyline coming out of this debate just as Gore's obnoxious sighs were the story out of the first 2000 debate. And that is not a beneficial comparison for Biden yet that is the comparison being made today.

The RNC is doing their bit to feed that perceptions of Biden's performance with this ad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=PCtemaHgjyA

As Gallup has reported, vice presidential debates don't move the public very much, even after perhaps the most memorable vice presidential debate of 1988 when Lloyd Bentsen put Quayle down by saying "You're no Jack Kennedy."

But it doesn't help Obama to have four-to-five days of discussion of Biden's demeanor instead of the substance of each man's arguments. And on Tuesday, Romney and Obama will meet in a townhall debate. If Obama takes heart from liberal reaction to Biden's performance and emulates the aggressive interruptions during the townhall, that would play poorly. The perception will be that earnest Americans are asking questions of the two candidates and want to hear their responses, not overbearing interruptions. And such behavior would put an end to whatever likability advantage that Obama might have. The campaign could allow Joe to be Joe last night, but it would be a big mistake to let Barack be Joe Tuesday night.

http://betsyspage.blogspot.com/2012/...oe-be-joe.html


Biden's Blind Spot
By Robert P. Kirchhoefer on 10.12.12 @ 2:30AM


Joe Biden missed a crucial opportunity in the Vice Presidential debate. He may have bested his opponent. Perhaps -- if you rate Biden's performance on sheer will and tenacity. He probably landed more punches -- but that's only because so many of his swings came in after the bell. So, that's the good news for Biden.

The bad news is, unfortunately, the good news doesn't really matter because Biden failed in his most important task. He failed to link his varied triumphs to his boss. Unlike Ryan, who made a point of specifically converting the essence of his rounds into points for Romney, Biden can't and couldn't help himself from being incredibly self-serving.

Certainly, viewers will come away assured that Joe Biden is a fighter and that he's undaunted, even if a little undisciplined. But they won't attach the points scored -- admitting that there were a few -- into reasons for reelecting Barack Obama. Biden failed to understand that he's not there to sell himself, his knowledge, or his achievements, but to sell his President.

Certainly, given the state of the economy, the state of the Middle East, and the state of practically everything in between, that's a hard sell.

But that Biden wasted (arguably) the only relevant 90 minutes of his vice presidency didn't make it any easier.

http://spectator.org/blog/2012/10/12/bidens-blind-spot

I missed some of it (a lot of it), but I thought Biden was rude and kept interrupting Ryan. Ryan, on the other hand, I wished he would've interrupted Biden to correct is statements and attitude along the way.

I don't think there was a real "clear winner"....Biden got points for somethings while Ryan got points for others.

Ryan would clearly have won if he had call BS on Biden instead of remaining a gentleman.

The moderator? Clearly slanted.

FACT CHECK: Slips in vice president's debate
By CALVIN WOODWARD | Associated Press – 13 hrs ago.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Anyone who paid attention to a hearing in Congress this week knew that the administration had been implored to beef up security at the U.S. Consulate in Libya before the deadly terrorist attack there. But in the vice presidential debate Thursday night, Joe Biden seemed unaware. "We weren't told they wanted more security there," the vice president asserted flatly. During a night in which Biden and Republican rival Paul Ryan both drifted from the facts on a range of domestic and foreign issues, that was a standout.

A look at some of their claims:

BIDEN: "Well, we weren't told they wanted more security there. We did not know they wanted more security again. And by the way, at the time we were told exactly — we said exactly what the intelligence community told us that they knew. That was the assessment. And as the intelligence community changed their view, we made it clear they changed their view."

RYAN: "There were requests for more security."

THE FACTS: Ryan is right, judging by testimony from Obama administration officials at the hearing a day earlier.

Charlene R. Lamb, a deputy assistant secretary for diplomatic security, told lawmakers she refused requests for more security in Benghazi, saying the department wanted to train Libyans to protect the consulate. "Yes, sir, I said personally I would not support it," she said.

Eric Nordstrom, who was the top security official in Libya earlier this year, testified he was criticized for seeking more security. He said conversations he had with people in Washington led him to believe that it was "abundantly clear we were not going to get resources until the aftermath of an incident. How thin does the ice have to get before someone falls through?"

He said his exasperation reached a point where he told a colleague that "for me the Taliban is on the inside of the building."

___

RYAN: "Look at just the $90 billion in stimulus the vice president was in charge of overseeing — this $90 billion in green pork to campaign contributors and special interest groups."

THE FACTS: Dismissing an entire package of energy stimulus grants and loans as "green pork" ignores the help that was given to people to make their homes more energy efficient, grants to public entities constructing high speed rail lines and tax credits to manufacturers to install equipment fostering cleaner energy.

To be sure, there were notable failed investments, such as $528 million to the politically connected and now-bankrupt solar power company Solyndra. But Ryan's claim made it sound like every penny went down the drain.

More broadly, economists are nearly universal in saying Obama's $800 billion-plus stimulus passed in early 2009 helped create both public-sector and private-sector jobs, even if they fell short of what sponsors had hoped. Douglas Elmendorf, director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, estimated the stimulus saved or created more than 3 million jobs.

___

BIDEN: "We went out and rescued General Motors."

THE FACTS: Actually, the auto bailout of General Motors and Chrysler began under President George W. Bush. The Obama administration continued and expanded it.

___ RYAN: "And then they put this new Obamacare board in charge of cutting Medicare each and every year in ways that will lead to denied care for current seniors. This board, by the way, it's 15 people, the president's supposed to appoint them next year. And not one of them even has to have medical training."

THE FACTS: Ryan is referring to the Independent Payment Advisory Board, created under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law. It has the power to force cuts in Medicare payments to service providers if costs rise above certain levels and Congress fails to act. But it doesn't look like the board will be cutting Medicare "each and every year," as Ryan asserts. Medicare costs are currently rising modestly and the government's own experts project the board's intervention will not be needed until 2018 and 2019 at the earliest — after Obama leaves office if re-elected to a second term.

___

BIDEN, when asked who would pay more taxes in Obama's second term: "People making a million dollars or more."

THE FACTS: Obama's proposed tax increase reaches farther down the income ladder than millionaires. He wants to roll back Bush-era tax cuts for individuals making over $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000.

___

RYAN: "We cannot allow Iran to gain a nuclear weapons capability. Now, let's take a look at where we've gone — come from. When Barack Obama was elected, they had enough fissile material — nuclear material — to make one bomb. Now they have enough for five. They're racing toward a nuclear weapon. They're four years closer toward a nuclear weapons capability."

THE FACTS: Ryan's claim is misleading. Iran isn't believed to have produced any of the highly enriched uranium needed to produce even one nuclear weapon, let alone five. That point isn't even disputed by Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implored the world at the United Nations last month to create a "red line" at enrichment above 20 percent. Iran would have to enrich uranium at much higher levels to produce a weapon. There is intelligence suggesting that Iran has worked on weapon designs, but not that it has developed a delivery system for any potential nuclear warhead.

___

BIDEN: "What we did is, we saved $716 billion and put it back, applied it to Medicare."

THE FACTS: Contrary to Biden's assertion, not all the money cut from Medicare is going back into the program in some other way. The administration is cutting $716 billion over 10 years in Medicare payments to providers and using some of the money to improve benefits under the program. But most of the money is being used to expand health care coverage outside of Medicare.

___

RYAN: "What troubles me more is how this administration has handled all of these issues. Look at what they're doing through Obamacare with respect to assaulting the religious liberties of this country. They're infringing upon our first freedom, the freedom of religion, by infringing on Catholic charities, Catholic churches, Catholic hospitals."

THE FACTS: The requirement under the health care law that most employers cover birth control free of charge to female employees does not apply to churches, houses of worship, or other institutions directly involved in propagating a religious faith. It does apply to church-affiliated institutions such as hospitals and charities that serve the general public.

___

BIDEN: "Romney said 'No, let Detroit go bankrupt.'"

THE FACTS: GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has gotten endless grief through the campaign for the headline put on his November 2008 opinion essay that he wrote for The New York Times. But his point was never that he wanted the auto industry to go down the tubes.

Romney opposed using government money to bail out Chrysler and General Motors, instead favoring privately financed bankruptcy restructuring. His prescription seemed improbable. Automakers were hemorrhaging cash and the banking system was in crisis, so private money wasn't available. Without the government money, it's likely both companies would have gone out of business. Romney did propose government-guaranteed private loans for both companies after bankruptcy.

___

RYAN: "We should have spoken out right away when the green revolution was up and starting, when the mullahs in Iran were attacking their people. We should not have called Bashar Assad a reformer when he was turning his Russian-provided guns on his own people.

THE FACTS: Neither President Barack Obama nor anyone else in his administration ever considered the Syrian leader a "reformer." The oft-repeated charge stems from an interview Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave in March 2011 noting that "many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he's a reformer." She did not endorse that view. The comment was widely perceived to be a knock at senators such as John Kerry of Massachusetts who maintained cordial relations with Assad in the months leading up to his crackdown on protesters.

___

RYAN: "This one tax would actually tax about 53 percent of small-business income."

BIDEN: "Ninety-seven percent of the small businesses in America pay less — make less than $250,000."

THE FACTS: Both are correct, but incomplete, when sizing up the effect on small business of raising taxes for individuals making more than $200,000 and married couples making more than $250,000, as Obama wants to do. Republicans say that would hit small-business owners who report business income on their individual income tax; Democrats say the overwhelming majority of small businesses would not be affected.

According to a 2010 report by the Joint Committee on Taxation, the official scorekeeper for Congress, about 3 percent of people who report business income would face a tax increase under Obama's plan. That support's Biden's point.

The same report says those business owners account for about half of all business income. That supports Ryan.

___

RYAN: Notes that there have been four rounds of U.N. sanctions on Iran to deter its nuclear program, three during the Bush administration and one under Obama. "And the only reason we got it is because Russia watered it down and prevented the sanctions from hitting the central bank. Mitt Romney proposed these sanctions in 2007. In Congress, I've been fighting for these sanctions since 2009. The administration was blocking us every step of the way." He also noted the administration has granted 20 waivers to the sanctions.

THE FACTS: The argument that the administration was watering down or delaying sanctions is misleading. For sanctions to work, they need maximum global agreement and cooperation. Russia watered down U.N. sanctions not only under Obama, but also under Bush. And it's highly unlikely that a Romney administration, particularly led by a candidate who says Russia is the biggest geostrategic threat to the U.S., would be able to get Russia completely on board with what the U.S. wants to — either in Iran or Syria.

The more absolute U.S. sanctions that Ryan and others have pushed in Congress would have punished U.S. allies, including most countries in Europe as well as Japan and South Korea, along with good friends like India and Singapore — without the exemptions that were put in place.

The administration has indeed granted 20 waivers, to countries that made significant reductions in Iranian oil imports. And the sanctions are pinching; Iran has been convulsed over the past week with protests over the collapse of its currency, which most people say is a direct result of the sanctions that the U.S. and others have imposed.

http://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-sli...-election.html

comments

Can we Americans ask that we are able to see who is contributing to the presidential races. We have the right to know if a foreign country is giving large amounts of money to a political party in order to further their best interest.

...

You better hope he's a 1 term President! 6 trillion dollars in debt and we borrow over a million dollars a day from China to keep this country running! How many billions have you spent on elaborate vacations? Check out how much they have spent that we are paying for and we have to borrow that money from China. Every man woman anc child in the U.S. has to pay over $57,000.00 dollars in taxes right now and how much more will he add to that total? THINK!

..

I think there has been a loss of rational and mission focus. Training Libyans, Iraqis, and Afghanistan people to provide their "OWN" security is a good thing. Training these people to provide "OUR" security is not a good thing.

..

a timer should be added to the debates with a 10 second warning bell and the shut the blank up bell. That includes the moderator not butting in. I also don’t need a moderator’s opinion during the debate. It would also be nice to blow an air horn in someone’s ear when they interrupt.

..

RYAN: "Look at just the $90 billion in stimulus the vice president was in charge of overseeing — this $90 billion in green pork to campaign contributors and special interest groups."

THE FACTS: Dismissing an entire package of energy stimulus grants and loans as "green pork" ignores the help that was given to people to make their homes more energy efficient, grants to public entities constructing high speed rail lines and tax credits to manufacturers to install equipment fostering cleaner energy.

To be sure, there were notable failed investments, such as $528 million to the politically connected and now-bankrupt solar power company Solyndra. But Ryan's claim made it sound like every penny went down the drain.

More broadly, economists are nearly universal in saying Obama's $800 billion-plus stimulus passed in early 2009 helped create both public-sector and private-sector jobs, even if they fell short of what sponsors had hoped. Douglas Elmendorf, director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, estimated the stimulus saved or created more than 3 million jobs.

I personally call Bullsh!t on this one ... Yahoo isn't even checking their OWN facts ( or are willfully displaying their own bias ? ) The whopping $6.7 million cost per job under the $50 billion stimulus-funded green energy loan program http://oversight.house.gov/wp-conten...-Testimony.pdf — which funded politically connected but now bankrupt solar firms Solyndra ($535 million), Abound Solar ($400 million), Beacon Power ($43 million), A123 ($250 million) and Ener1 ($119 million).

Originally Posted by FreeBnutt

POLLS, POLLS, POLLS, those are a joke. They are 99.99% to target markets, to get the results they want.

the only "polls" I am interested in will be posted after Nov 7... until then it is ALL smoke and mirrors....

“No, Joe! U.S Catholic Bishops Say Biden Spoke Falsely”

I know. Shocker:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/no-j...-spoke-falsely

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a statementsaying that Vice President Joe Biden’s assertion in Thursday night’s debate that Obamacare’s sterilization-contraception-abortifacient regulation does not apply to Catholic and other religious institutions is not true. http://www.usccb.org/news/2012/12-163.cfm

“This is not a fact,” the bishops said of Biden’s claim.

“With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear,” Biden said in the debate. “No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to either refer for contraception. None has to pay for contraception. None has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact. That is a fact.”

Not so, said the bishops.

This is not a fact,” said a statement issuedby the U.S.C.C.B on Friday. “The HHS mandate contains a narrow, four-part exemption for certain ‘religious employers.’ That exemption was made final in February and does not extend to ‘Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital,’ or any other religious charity that offers its services to all, regardless of the faith of those served.

“HHS has proposed an additional ‘accommodation’ for religious organizations like these, which HHS itself describes as ‘non-exempt,’” said the U.S.C.C.B. “That proposal does not even potentially relieve these organizations from the obligation ‘to pay for contraception’ and ‘to be a vehicle to get contraception.’ They will have to serve as a vehicle, because they will still be forced to provide their employees with health coverage, and that coverage will still have to include sterilization, contraception, and abortifacients. They will have to pay for these things, because the premiums that the organizations (and their employees) are required to pay will still be applied, along with other funds, to cover the cost of these drugs and surgeries.”

On June 14, the Catholic bishops of the United States unanimously approved a statement declaring the Obamacare regulation an “unjust and illegal mandate.”

In this unanimous statement, the bishops made clear that the Obamacare regulation not only violates the rights of Catholic institutions but also the rights of Catholic business owners and individual Catholic lay persons, whom the regulation would force to act against their consciences.

“The HHS mandate creates still a third class, those with no conscience protection at all: individuals who, in their daily lives, strive constantly to act in accordance with their faith and moral values,” said the unanimous bishops. “They, too, face a government mandate to aid in providing “services” contrary to those values—whether in their sponsoring of, and payment for, insurance as employers; their payment of insurance premiums as employees; or as insurers themselves—without even the semblance of an exemption. This, too, is unprecedented in federal law, which has long been generous in protecting the rights of individuals not to act against their religious beliefs or moral convictions. We have consistently supported these rights, particularly in the area of protecting the dignity of all human life, and we continue to do so.”

In August, the National Catholic Bioethics Center issued an analysis saying that Catholics who own private businesses cannot morally obey the regulation and should be prepared to drop all insurance coverage of their employees by no later than Jan. 1, 2014–when Obamacare comes into full force.

“Dropping all coverage appears to be the most morally sound approach,” said the analysis,

“The ethicists of The National Catholic Bioethics Center believe that temporary compliance with the mandate, coupled with active opposition by all reasonable and legal means available, is a morally tolerable option only as a last resort, provided that this compliance ends once the insurance exchanges are available to employees in 2014,” said the analysis.

Citing Pope John Paul II’s encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae, the Catholic ethicists further said that Catholics have a moral duty to resist the Obamacare regulation.

“Most importantly, we are impelled to recall the distinct moral obligation of all persons of conscience, and especially Catholics, to resist unjust laws,” they said. “This duty was outlined explicitly by our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae: ‘There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection. … In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, … it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to ‘take part in a propaganda campaign in favour of such a law, or vote for it.’”

Meh. He was “passionate” and “on the offensive”. That’s what really matters. Truth? A man-made construct to be determined by those who hold the most power. Ends, means. You know the deal by now.

It’s just unusual to see it so very concentrated as we did last evening.


http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=44370

“You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?”
By drillanwr, on October 12, 2012, at 10:17 am

The Joker was Wild vs "MATH"

I tried to keep track, but as with most everyone else watching, was fairly mesmerized at the Obama administration substituting Joe Biden with The Joker in last night's VP debate. But it is the Halloween season...

A couple of important points we all may have missed during last night's classless clown performance:

Biden "literally" threw the CIA under the bus over the 9/11/12 attack in Benghazi, Libya. http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/..._source=co2hog http://babalublog.com/2012/10/shatte...dged-cover-up/ http://babalublog.com/2012/10/the-st...nghazi-attack/ (Note to Joe, ask Nancy Pelosi about crapping all over the CIA, buddy. http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybens..._waterboarding )

Biden admitted, lost to him obviously, that during this current administration Iran has amassed more fissile materials to make a bomb. But that's okay because they don't yet have a bomb ... However, the same intelligence Biden is citing is doing just fine with info on Iran's nuke production but he threw them under the bus on Benghazi, by the way ... Mmmm-kay. But, you know, Iran having nukes is fall off the chair and roll on the floor laughing funny as hell. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmdEP...layer_embedded And Bibi Netanyahu's a BFF, ya know, talk to the guy all the time. http://weaselzippers.us/2012/10/11/b...en-to-anybody/

While it was counted that Biden ignorantly interrupted Paul Ryan well over 80 times, http://weaselzippers.us/2012/10/11/n...ute-debate-82/ I took note that Martha Raddatz constantly interrupted Ryan several times in mid-sentence http://twitchy.com/2012/10/11/martha...ont-interrupt/ (and permitted Biden to disrupt) when he was making his important point(s), which looked to be a bit unprofessional, and biased ... and tag team-ish with Biden. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/...nce-at-debate/ I pretty much only recall one interruption she made with Biden, and it was over the word "stuff". Late in the debate, when Ryan had finally been able to complete a thought and a response, Biden yapped, "I hope I get equal time!" The blatant jackass had answered the question first... As a matter of fact, at times it looked as if the debate was geared at Biden having the last word on everything. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5P5eQiKNQs

Biden made several factual gaffes. His eagerness to jump on Ryan's "JFK" mention was as cheap and void of any substance as debate 'gotchas' come. http://www.nysun.com/editorials/ryan...and-jfk/88023/ In fact, Ryan's pointwas correct about presidents having cut taxes with revenue success in the nation's history. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=aEdXrfIMdiU So, I guess in addition to our Paul Ryan meme of "MATH" we can now add "HISTORY", or "CIVICS" if you're that old.

Joe Biden falling back on "Bush's fault" by bringing up the two wars bought with a credit card that Paul Ryan had voted for. While sitting in the Senate Joe Biden voted for the two "Bush" wars as well. http://freebeacon.com/biden-claims-h...tan-iraq-wars/ But the fact is this administration's stimulus, GM buy out, and ObamaCare were all bought on credit cards ... and this Obama-run economy is being completely run on credit cards written in Chinese and on the money the Fed continues to print.

Biden : Laughing at the issues http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCtem...layer_embedded


Biden Talking about redistribution : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue53K...layer_embedded


Joe Biden was the class clown, at our expense. He knew there was a test last night, and he knew his answers were dead wrong, or lies. http://therightnewz.com/?p=11519 So, he decided to distract the classroom and the classroom monitor so that the kid who studied couldn't show he had studied and came prepared with the right answers. I have no doubt it was the mission the Obama campaign handlers had planned all along for the painfully uncouth politician. Only equally non-serious people http://www.mediaite.com/tv/chris-mat...ory-in-debate/ and the willfully blind http://washingtonexaminer.com/obama-...s#.UHeOps1Zbww thought Biden's performance was great. Just "terrific". http://washingtonexaminer.com/obama-...s#.UHgmJJWuXww

Chris Wallace: "Most Disrespectful Debate Performance In My Lifetime" http://nation.foxnews.com/chris-wall...ce-my-lifetime

Robert Stacy McCain: http://spectator.org/archives/2012/1...razy-uncle-joe

Biden's behavior resembled the hypomanic phase of bipolar disorder, as he grinned incongruously or faked laughter in reaction to Ryan's answers, rudely scoffed at the Republican's policy proposals as "bluster" and "loose talk," and bulldozed past whatever feeble attempts Raddatz made to halt his repeated filibusters

.


This immediately began popping up on Facebook and Twitter following the debate:

Proverbs 29:9 - When a wise man has a controversy with a foolish man...the foolish man either rages or laughs, and there is no rest.

CBS: "Biden 'May Have Some Clean Up of His Own to Do Today On Libya'" http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...ya_654283.html

(Note: I am catching up this morning, so I may be adding a thing or two, mostly in links, to this post.)


http://babalublog.com/2012/10/you-ev...ale-moonlight/

Ryan and the 'Unelected'

By Kevin Mooney on 10.12.12 @ 12:47PM


"Unelected."

That's a word Rep. Paul Ryan used in the vice-presidential debate last night in response to a question about abortion that should be repeated incessantly on the campaign trail. The non-answers Vice President Joe Biden offered up when Ryan challenged unelected elites who routinely bypass Congress as they reshape public policy suggests the Democrats know they are playing defense on constitutional questions.

Here is what moderator Martha Raddatz asked toward the end of the debate: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012...ential-debate/

"I want to go back to the abortion question here. If the Romney-Ryan ticket is elected, should those who believe that abortion should remain legal be worried?"

Instead of accepting the premise of the question, Ryan told Raddatz that it is not the role of the U.S. Supreme Court to reset policy, and that weighty matters like abortion should be subject to an up and down vote in the legislative branch.

"We don't think that unelected judges should make this decision; that people through their elected representatives in reaching a consensus in society through the democratic process should make this determination."

In his non-answer, Biden referenced Judge Robert Bork and the potential for new openings on the U.S. Supreme Court. Bork, who was President Reagan's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987, scandalized then Sen. Biden by hewing a bit too closely to what the U.S. Constitution actually says.

Earlier in the debate, when Raddatz asked about Medicare and entitlement reform, Ryan took on Obamacare's Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).

"…they put this new Obamacare board in charge of cutting Medicare each and every year in ways that will lead to denied care for current seniors," he explained. "This board, by the way, it's 15 people, the president's supposed to appoint them next year. And not one of them even has to have medical training."

In his non-answer, Biden referenced Sarah Palin, the GOP's 2008 presidential nominee, and the "death panel." But he declined to challenge Ryan on the merits of the IPAB.

"Unelected" is a word that can connect with average voters who are still keen on the idea of "checks and balances" and the "separation of powers" between the various branches.

To paraphrase the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, http://freedomeden.blogspot.com/2009...s-america.html who joined with Biden, to mount a smear campaign against Judge Bork back in 1987 -- "Joe Biden's America is a land where unelected, unaccountable elites are permitted to operate beyond the boundaries of constitutional restraints to impose big government schemes on an unsuspecting public that would never pass muster in a transparent, open debate."

Something like that is in order on the campaign trail.

http://spectator.org/blog/2012/10/12...-the-unelected