The Vice-Presidential Debate: Joe Biden vs. Paul Ryan

I watched the big Vice Presidential debate.  It was somewhat entertaining.

I thought the moderator, Martha Raddatz of ABC News, did a professional job.  I didn't feel that she was overtly biased one way or the other.  She asked good questions.

Who won the debate?  There was no clear winner, though I thought Ryan stuck more closely to facts, whereas Biden was his usual bombastic and demagogic self.  Ryan had Biden rattled early in the debate, where Biden felt he had to interrupt Ryan by speaking over him.  Still, the Fox News panel of undecided voters unanimously agreed that the debate had not influenced their choice one way or the other.

Biden is being criticized tonight by many who felt he was disrespectful and rude, by laughing and smirking while Ryan was speaking.  This behavior was seen on television via the split screen, showing the faces of both candidates simultaneously.

Personally, I thought Biden scored points on his defense of the Administration's Afghanistan withdrawal plan, where they have announced in advance that we will withdraw our troops by 2014, come what may.  Biden argued that we have put the Afghani government on notice that they must step up and take over the task of their own defense, and our departure deadline puts pressure on them to do that.  Good argument, and it changed my mind on the point.  (Romney-Ryan's position wasn't materially different than that of Obama-Biden, anyway.)

Biden couldn't defend the Obama Administration's disgraceful neglect of security in the Benghazi attack on our embassy on September 11, 2012.  Clearly, that debacle reflects very poorly on Obama, both in the criminal negligence of allowing it to happen, then in the obvious attempt to cover it up with a phony story about a YouTube video.

Ryan scored on the economy, as it is clear that the Obama Administration hasn't a clue on economics, job creation and the role of tax policy in maximizing prosperity.  Biden's only stance was what it has always been, tax the crap out of the "rich," bleed those suckers dry.  This always turns me off.  The Democrat vision is that the role of the upper class is to financially support the middle class, and this is the only way the middle class can grow -- as a kind of parasite off the rich.  A better view is that the upper and middle classes need each other -- the former as employers, investors and entrepreneurs, the latter as employees, investors, managers and customers.  They need a symbiotic relationship, not a parasitical one.

My general conclusion:  The VP debate won't materially affect this campaign or the fortunes of the candidates.  If Obama was hoping that Biden would somehow pull his polls out of the toilet, he will be disappointed.  Meanwhile, stay tuned for the next presidential debate, next Tuesday, October 16.

Update:  Twitter feed shows a CNN poll rating Ryan the winner on several points:

Clearly, the above statistics indicate that Ryan won the debate and possibly added more momentum to the Romney-Ryan ticket.

Momentum Building for Mitt Romney

This morning the polls are continuing in Romney's direction.  Rasmussen has Mitt going ahead 49% to 47%.  I detect a change in the public awareness of who Romney is and why he would make a better president than Obama.  I suspect a wave of momentum is building for Romney.

Mitt has momentum with thirty days to go before the vote.  The polls at Real Clear Politics still show Obama slightly ahead, but click on any of the polls and you will see that the totals are averages of previous poll results going back a month or more.  The latest poll results show Romney going ahead by encouraging percentages. (See for example, Florida and Virginia.)  The latest Ohio polls, taken in October before the debate, show Romney tied with Obama.

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to Paul Ryan's debate with Joe Biden next Thursday, October 11.  It won't have as big of an impact, but should be entertaining to watch.

Paul Ryan's Sizzling Speech to the Convention

Paul Ryan Speaks to GOP Convention

Paul Ryan displayed his substantial speaking skills before the convention tonight.  Some of my favorite excerpts:

Right now, 23 million men and women are struggling to find work. Twenty-three million people, unemployed or underemployed. Nearly one in six Americans is living in poverty. Millions of young Americans have graduated from college during the Obama presidency, ready to use their gifts and get moving in life. Half of them can’t find the work they studied for, or any work at all.  So here’s the question: Without a change in leadership, why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?

And also:

College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life. Everyone who feels stuck in the Obama economy is right to focus on the here and now. And I hope you understand this too, if you’re feeling left out or passed by: You have not failed, your leaders have failed you.

You can read the entire speech here.

ABC's John Stossel Likes Paul Ryan

Even though he works for one of the alphabet networks, John Stossel is pretty conservative.  His first impression of Paul Ryan was that he wasn't conservative enough.  Now he reassesses that impression in his article today "Who Is Paul Ryan?"

You have to read it.

Joe Biden Pushes Grandma Off a Cliff! (Photoshop)

This image was inspired by Rush Limbaugh's commentary this morning.

Months back, the Democrats ran a below-the-belt political ad, depicting Paul Ryan pushing "grandma," an old woman in a wheelchair, off a cliff.  Ryan, the Democrats lied, wanted to destroy Medicare, and the imagery supported that lie.  Ryan, of course, wants to reform Medicare, which is currently on track for bankruptcy in twelve more years.  Without reform, Medicare will disappear for lack of money.

In actual fact, it is the Democrats who want to destroy Medicare by distorting the real issues involved.  Without reform, it is the Democrats who are "pushing grandma off a cliff."  But Democrats just can't help themselves.  When an opportunity arises to scare seniors, Democrats will scare the seniors in order to get votes.  Honesty is not a consideration and there is no long view:  simply win the next election, stay in power as long as possible, even at the cost of Medicare and Social Security going broke.  Grandma is merely cannon fodder for the next election cycle, as far as Dems are concerned.  "Grandma" is not their worry or their concern -- their only motivation is retaining power.

This grandpa, however, isn't fooled.  Don't you be either.

Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos Sweating Bullets Over Obama's Chances

Markos Moulitsas Sweating Bullets

With the pick of the handsome, young and articulate Paul Ryan as VP candidate under Romney, Markos Moulitsas appears to be having a nervous breakdown.  The obnoxious leftist jabbers like a squirrel on speed in his Daily Kos column this morning (via American Power).  See his caffeinated jabberings of "We're winning!" and "We need to go for the jugular, run up the score!"

Alas, poor Moulitsas.  He appears more in the midst of a nervous breakdown than in an ecstasy of expected victory.  The old Shakespearean observation would apply here:  Me thinks the lady doth protest too much.

No doubt Moulitsas has been happy with the dismantling of American prosperity and freedom.  With just another four years of Obama, we could all be wearing red berets and kerchiefs around our necks, singing the  Internationale.  Now Moulitsas, appropriately tagged "the Daily Kos Rage Boy" by Donald Douglas, sees his glorious Red Dawn suppressed, cut short, terminated, kaput.  No more free lunch.

Oh boo hoo hoo, what's a radical rage boy to do?

How Will the Democrats Slander New VP Pick, Paul Ryan?

Paul Ryan, Next Target 
of the Democrat Smear Machine

Mitt Romney has chosen Congressman Paul Davis Ryan of Wisconsin to be his Vice Presidential running mate.  Ryan, who is 42, is married with three children.  He is a Roman Catholic by faith, is a graduate of Miami University in Ohio, and has a BA degree in both economics and political science.

Ryan has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1999 and currently chairs the House Budget Committee.  I wrote about Ryan in November of last year and was quite impressed with his ideas and his understanding of economic issues.  Follow the link to learn some great things about Paul Ryan.

The only question now is:  how can he be properly slandered and slimed by the Party of the Poison Pen, the Democrats?  Believe me, they already have the slander well researched and written.  The only question for them now is, when is the best time to disseminate the political poison, which Democrat house organ or talking head will start it off, and what should the first barb be about?

The Poison Propaganda has already started to fly.  You can see it in the first headlines of leftist columnists:

• "The Most Daring Decision of Mitt's Career," the New Yorker
• "VP Pick an Admission of Fear from Mitt," Ezra Klein, Washington Post

Just from reading the above titles, one might get the impression that there is something terribly wrong or radical about the Catholic economist and father of three.

Stay tuned.  They're just getting started.

Paul Ryan: Making Sense on the Economy and Why OWS is Wrong

Rep. Paul Ryan

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin shares some economic wisdom in an interview with the American Enterprise Institute.  He explains well why "wealth redistribution" only makes people poorer, destroys opportunity and increases misery.

His solution to poverty and unemployment:

...our answer is upward mobility — not begrudging people who become successful, but making it easier for people to find success, to bring those rungs of the economic ladder within reach of people who’ve never scaled it before. Grow the pie versus redistribute slices of a shrinking pie. That’s what our society has always prided itself on. That’s the American system we’ve had. … It would be a shame to get rid of it and transform it into a social democracy model like you have in Europe, which simply means bitter austerity and shared misery.

On why redistribution is not the answer to poverty:

I’m just saying look at the complete picture. And the complete picture is that our transfer programs should be aimed at the people who need them, not people who don’t. Our tax system should not have as its primary, guiding principle redistribution. It should have growth as its primary principle so you can accelerate mobility. When you have a tax system aimed at redistribution and narrowing disparities, you end up slowing down growth and slowing down mobility.

 On government "fixing" income disparity:

As a person in government, I don’t see it as my job to try and micromanage the outcome of people’s lives. I see it as trying to advance the premise of equality of opportunity and getting people as much opportunity to improve themselves as possible. … The whole premise of this argument is wrong. The economy is not a zero-sum system. One man’s gain does not necessarily come at another man’s loss. … Wealth is created. Steve Jobs started Apple in his garage not by taking from somebody else but by creating and inventing something. Wealth and growth are organic and don’t necessarily come from somebody else’s loss.

On Barack Obama's "class warfare" strategy for reelection:

There’s far more anxiety in society because the economy is so bad. … It’s easier to find a scapegoat than address the root causes of these problems. But obviously [President Barack Obama] is banking his reelection on this tact. … He doesn’t have a good record to run on. The results are abysmal. He’s clearly not going to triangulate like Bill Clinton because … he’s far more ideological than Bill Clinton was. … So all he’s got left is to take all the anxiety that is building in America and try and tap into it and channel it toward class resentment. These are powerful emotions — fear, envy, anxiety, resentment — very powerful emotions but dark emotions. They are extremely divisive. But it seems to me that’s the plan.

 Ryan imparts a lot of insight and wisdom.  Read the whole interview here.