That's substance. That's not rude. That's great debating skills and research. Ryan walked into the trap and got slapped around. Joe Biden delivered a shellacking on Paul Ryan who looked as if he wanted to be someplace else. And all these talking heads, pundits, experts and commentators can talk about is that he was rude and laughed too much? God help us. What's wrong with these people?
These same people would gloss over Paul Ryan's spin and inability to say just how he and Mitt Romney would do what amounts to a flat tax (though it's not called that) by closing loopholes. Again, like the first presidential debate, the moderator did not press Ryan on specifics and when Biden tried to get an answer he just reverted to good ole GOP talking points about how President Obama shifted $716 million from Medicare to pay for so-called Obamacare -- a thoroughly and totally debunked and discredited statement.
Thing is Joe Biden's honesty and integrity is impeccable. After all he's not a Republican. Everybody knows he says what the thinks and nobody can doubt his sincerity. For Romney, Ryan and the Republicans lying has become a way of life and their modus operandi. They have to tell a lie to cover a lie and then another to cover that one. Soon they forget how many lies they told to who, when and where. That's why Mitt Romney has to "walk back" so many statements. They simply are not true. So for the media and its gaggle of pundits if you're a Democrat in a nationally televised Vice Presidential debate, the only appropriate response to a dishonest opponent is to nod respectfully and thank him for his forthrightness.
Heck if you're a Democrat, all hell will break loose if you challenge the guy or try to correct the record. And if you laugh at claims that are so off the wall or become amused by an opponent who continues to repeat over and over again the same old malarkey (Biden's description) in canned and scripted answers, then you run the risk of being called rude, snarky and mentally challenged.
In the end the media got it wrong. Joe Biden's smiling (they said too much) was not to minimize the seriousness of the debate. It was just too much to hold in when he was bombarded by Ryan's list of "doctored facts." Hell, I would have burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter had I been the one to listen to these really crazy and zany ideas coming from the Republican side. I kid you not; this party has gone so far to the right that there are many, many people who need to be seriously checked out for mental competency.
Remember Newt Gingrich? Remember his colony on the moon in his second term if elected to the presidency? Remember Rick Perry's senior moments? And Rick Santorum's war against education? And Sarah Palin's "death panels?" There is much to laugh at because these folks are deadly serious about this unadulterated nonsense.
Ryan is not as bad as these folks; he has some sense. But lest he alienate the crackpots in his party he has to take some really spooky and, yes, laughable positions from time to time. Joe Biden could not help himself and so he laughed, smiled or smirked -- call it what you will -- because that's a normal reaction to a statement or position that defies comprehension, logic and common sense. That or you shake your head and pity the poor soul's predicament.
But no amount of nitpicking over the style and performance of the Vice Presidential debate will hide the fact that Joe Biden gave Paul Ryan a real shellacking (President Obama's word). And that, my friend, is no laughing matter.
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