The Biden v. Ryan Debate Thread

no, too stoopid a fucking country for that

i think there's truth that obama, as a black man, couldn't do the things biden did last night without america losing its shit

yep, though very few people could do what biden did last night. biden's rep as a guy who says inappropriate things and has gaffes and speaks his mind (or whatever the rep is) actually plays to his favor in debates because hey, it's just joe being joe. i don't think anyone expected (or expects) obama to do what biden did last night, they just expect him to not look like he just got in a terrible argument with his wife that involved the smashing of a wedding photo against a wall, and to speak up and make a few good points every once in a while.

Yes. He's got four days to figure out some workable middle ground.

I agree with somebody I read who said the town-hall format will be tough for Obama, or at least tough if you need to push back some. That's where you're supposed to do what Clinton did (so well) in '92, remember questioner's names and get all Oprah when necessary. The first debate was where he had the freedom to play completely to the camera (audience present, but instructed not to react) and be a little more aggressive. Town halls are different.

Of course Obama will do well next debate, just like Biden "won" last night. That's been his "narrative" since 2007: after listless performances, he gets even.

biden's rep as a guy who says inappropriate things and has gaffes and speaks his mind (or whatever the rep is) actually plays to his favor in debates because hey, it's just joe being joe.

ya this is key & i think it applies in general at this point. i wonder if one of the reasons he was picked is because he essentially has carte blanche to say any old shit and everyone just goes "ahh, that joe!"

If we stop watching cable news or reading Nate Silver, it's still amazing how well how predictable this race has been. Obama and Romney are now neck in neck -- same as it ever was in July and August. Obama stank in the first debate, his veep picked up the slack, and will likely rally next time. The horserace part of this shit is so godddamn stupid that it corrupts everyone who follows -- and I don't exclude myself.

it's still amazing how well how predictable this race has been

Could not disagree more with this. I was surprised by Romney's level of ineptitude as a candidate, surprised when Obama began to pull away (without any major changes in economic conditions), and right now I'm baffled by this latest turn of events. I'm surprised by things all the time. You and iatee are not.

well, no, I WAS surprised at how well Obama was polling from the end of August through most of September. I figured it couldn't last because Romney would at some point get the convention bump he didn't get.

btw because of the, well, precarious nature of Florida right now I'm probably going to follow Chomsky's advice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN608oCEqqM

I'm surprised when there's something surprising that happens. obama pulled away w/ a good convention bounce and romney had a a good debate from a historical pov but on the whole things are where models were predicting they would be at this point w/ slow positive economic growth. almost nothing else surprising has happened and the polls barely moved for months and in a lot of ways this is about as boring as a close election could get. but if romney pulls ahead I'll be surprised and if obama gets back to where he was I'd be surprised.

at what point was Dole dead in the water? i feel like there's almost always still a lot of suspense and "it can go either way" talk 3-4 weeks before the election.

Nate Silver wasn't around then so nobody knows

Dole was dead in the water in '95.

That and Reagan in '84 were the two least surprising elections of my lifetime.

http://library.law.columbia.edu/urlmirror/CLR/100CLR524/ptpreselec.html

Everyone on twitter seems to be freaking out what do you guys think, did Obama blow this hugely or is this nbd
- A Concerned Canadian
― Author ~ Coach ~ Goddess (s1ocki), Wednesday, October 3, 2012 10:53 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nbd
― iatee, Wednesday, October 3, 2012 10:53 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark

From there to "I'm surprised when there's something surprising that happens" doesn't quite connect to me.

yeah i was gonna say, clinton and reagan's re-elections seem like the only ones in the last few decades the ball was still in the air pretty close to the end. things weren't too suspenseful by election day on '08 but people were still so bewildered that we were actually going to have a black president that everyone was on the edge of their seats anyway. (xpost)

I still don't think obama blew it hugely, it just pumped up conservatives - the extent that it did was def on the higher end of what people expected possible, but like I said, I don't think that's something that can happen more than once

yeah i was gonna say, clinton and reagan's re-elections seem like the only ones in the last few decades the ball was still in the air pretty close to the end.

wait am I reading this correctly?

er "wasn't" not "was" sorry

I don't think the reason for Romney's big comeback is mainly that he "won" the debate. I think it's more the way that he redefined himself and laid out his agenda in greater detail, aiming straight for the center of the political spectrum. That Obama was stiff and seemed disconnected was just the gravy. Up to the week of the debate, the Romney agenda had been strangely hazy, so the Obama campaign had been able to paint him in the most negative light. His main accomplishment in the debate was not "beating" Obama but redefining himself. At that moment, he suddenly started running the kind of competent, centrist campaign that everyone had been expecting him to run since he clinched the nomination, but that for whatever reason, he had been strangely unwilling or unready to do up till then.

haha it's all good, ship -- I know shit about sports so I thought, "Oh, so THAT's what 'the ball in the air' means..."

lol

i have to say i'm a bit surprised, i figured it would barely make any difference. but there may be a lot of people out there who don't like Obama but didn't trust Romney, and Romney may have given them enough moderate bullshit to seem like someone they could vote for.

i know things about sports and i'm not sure what that
metaphor means

guys can we please not examine too closely whether the random phrase i used is an actual thing people say or whether i used it correctly

http://www.theonion.com/articles/eloquent-biden-brings-entire-audience-to-tears-in,29887/

i know this has been posted elsewhere but i'm posting it AGAIN because it's a true thing of beauty

Joe Biden being this wacky off-the-cuff sort of figure is still a little strange to me since my first memory of him was a stiff dropping out of the primaries because his canned speeches were plagiarized.

i don't think anyone expected (or expects) obama to do what biden did last night, they just expect him to not look like he just got in a terrible argument with his wife that involved the smashing of a wedding photo against a wall, and to speak up and make a few good points every once in a while.

seriously awed by the poetry of this analysis

Joe Biden being this wacky off-the-cuff sort of figure is still a little strange to me since my first memory of him was a stiff dropping out of the primaries because his canned speeches were plagiarized.

― pplains, Friday, October 12, 2012 10:55 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^ this

also, i have a hard time reconciling his "populist" schtick when i remember how he was MasterCard's go-to guy when he was still in the Senate.

though i still greatly enjoyed watching Biden mop the floor with Ryan.

Hasselbeck h. ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIS_Building

_2000 attack

On the evening of 20 September 2000 the building was attacked by unapprehended forces using a Russian-built RPG-22 anti-tank missile, causing superficial damage.[6] British Police recovered the discarded launcher at Spring Gardens park in Vauxhall, as well as finding remains of the missile which had exploded against an eighth floor window.[7]

_

How the fuck have I never heard about this?

Oh god guys. Zing disaster sry

liberals totally Etch-a-Sketch when it comes to Biden's past horrors.

Horrors! Just in time for Halloween. I'm going as Biden during the Clarence Thomas hearing.

i'm going as 09 biden advising obama against a surge and in favor of immediate troop drawdown from afghanistan that way when women ignore me it'll be in character.

I'm going as Jim Lehrer. To make it look good I'm wearing real pancake makeup.

I'm going as Jim Lehrer with an actual pancake on my head, in honor of Dan Lacey.

https://twitter.com/charlesdavis84/status/256910514184130560

liberals totally Etch-a-Sketch when it comes to Biden's past horrors.

― cancer, kizz my hairy irish azz (Dr Morbius), Saturday, October 13, 2012 9:39 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't think you're using the metaphor correctly, but i do know what you mean. because it's the same thing you mean in every single post you make to ILE.

it would only be redundant if the thread had any sustained chat at all about how biden implied he didn't vote for war on a credit card or about the consequences of his albright-like gusto for crippling sanctions or about his being proven a remarkable liar and plagiarist and so on

plagiarist thing is just lol, nobody writes their speeches anyway

Holy shit, I forgot all about Biden dropping out of the race in '88 due to plagiarism.

Remember when obama was plagarizing deval patrick?

it would only be redundant if the thread had any sustained chat at all about how biden implied he didn't vote for war on a credit card or about the consequences of his albright-like gusto for crippling sanctions or about his being proven a remarkable liar and plagiarist and so on

― zvookster, Saturday, October 13, 2012 8:14 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

except this is a thread about the debate. not about joe biden in general.

and morbs never deigns to actually explain himself (herself? what do i know.) at length, just pops in for a would-be devastating bon mot. frankly i think if s/he were party to a conversation IRL and behaved her/himself like this, s/he'd get punched in the face. why we countenance her/him here is beyond me.

If ILX were a real life party, there would be a lot of people with busted schnozzes, in fairness.

lol @ ms. morbs