Thursday, October 11, 2012

POW

Can't believe the spin the Republicans are trying to put on the vice presidential debate tonight. As Bill Maher tweeted or Facebooked: "911 there's an old man beating up a child on my TV!"

Biden didn't let Ryan get away with his lies or with his sidestepping the questions. And the moderator, Martha Raddatz, did a great job too, except at the end with those questions about what their religion brings to governing or why they're special. That was more View than vice presidential debate.

But the right has their version of the "truth" that is based on ideology rather than facts, and the left has it's perspective that they think any reasonable person examining the facts would agree with, ignoring the reality of contemporary U.S. politics where there's too many facts for people to keep up with (unless they're news junkies like me and I assume most folks reading this blog) so they go by their feelings and that's how Bush/Cheney got elected (even though those feelings were betrayed by almost everything they did) and it could get Romney/Ryan elected.

Not sure how many people who don't already have their minds set watched this debate anyway. But it was still a great pleasure to see someone smart and experienced and honest and down to earth kick the mindless butt of a goofy looking (Ryan sort of looks like one of the muppets when he does that closed mouth grin, doesn't he?) Ayn Rand rightwing ideologue who despite all attempts by the media and Ryan himself to paint himself as similar to Biden in their Irish Catholic working class background is really a spoiled rich kid whose family owned most of the town he grew up in and still lives in and who, as we all know, was voted "biggest brown noser" in high school.

Gotta love that Joe though. Old guy too. Didn't seem like it tonight, except when he obviously tired toward the end.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obviously Biden won; but I thought his grinning and condescending laugh, right out of the box, was in poor form. Not respectful to himself or Ryan. How necessary was that behavior? It just handed people like Mary Matlin etc... a legitimate chance to call him a buffoon, which they did.

Anonymous said...

oops...from Suzanne.....someday I will figure out my Google account and be able to post with my name!

Lally said...
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Lally said...

I hear ya Suzanne. But there's no doubt in my mind that Biden and Obama were held to higher standards than their opponents in these debates so far. Because the right has been the aggressive side since Obama got elected, and has been that way with the media since Reagan, there has been a double standard initiated. If the right lies, they are rarely questioned. If the right fucks up (9/11 anyone? AND its aftermath! i.e. two unpaid for wars while cutting taxes on the wealthy etc.) they are often given a pass (Reagan out and out lied often, implying he fought in WWII while he was making movies in Hollywood etc. which is why they called him "the teflon president" because no legitimate criticism from moderates or those left of center were picked up by the media or if mentioned were immediately dropped). To call the debate last night a draw, which most of the media did, and mention Biden's smiling or laughing in response to Ryan's lies as inappropriate, which the rightwing pundits and spinners did, and not hear any mention at all of Ryan's goofy schoolboy grin and lack of substantive facts in his comments is just another indication of how the media has been cowed by the right for so long. Even NPR. I woke up this morning to public radio news giving way more time to Ryan's rebuttals than to Biden's, and none to the moderator's challenges to Ryan's lying and avoidance of the questions etc.

JIm said...
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Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Sorry, but Biden's smirkiness did not serve him, his boss nor the Democratic Party well, even though he won on merit and fact - his victory would have been more resounding if he hadn't gone this route.

Lally said...

Maybe Robert, but that's not the way I saw it. I was happy to see him making it clear that he felt Ryan's evasions and lies and misrepresentations were just that, laughable, and then he'd go on to skewer his opponent with actual facts.

JIm said...

Buffoon!!!

-K- said...

My favorite line: But I always say what I mean.

I thought this was a verbal ju-jitsu that underlined Romney's callousness, which to my mind is Romney's overriding characteristic.

JIm said...
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Loyeen said...

Lally,

I have to agree with you. I think he was shocked about all of the lies, again. http://bobcesca.com/ I thought Biden was awesome. Can't wait for the next debate.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

I'll take another look/listen at it.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Here's my reasoning behind my earlier comment. This is no laughing matter, the state of our world that is. People are SUFFERING, GOING THROUGH HELL and Biden represents them in this debate. If you're going to skewer and cut through the greed and lies of Ryan and Romney, do it with deadly serious earnestness to honor all the victims of Bain capital and the hedgefund criminals and all the suffering from the wars/incursions and everything else bad in our world caused by the greedopoly and the teapocrits.

Lally said...

Good point Robert and nicely made.