Biden Makes a Fool Out of Himself

Last night was the Vice Presidential Debate. We expected Joe Biden to be...well...Joe Biden. What I didn't expect was for Biff Tannen to show up and try to turn Paul Ryan (unsuccessfully) into George McFly.

To get into a little bit of Rhetoric Nerd-speak, what Vice President Biden used was Proof by Verbosity. Essentially this is a rhetorical fallacy where one shouts down his opponent instead of allowing his ideas to stand for themselves.  Joe Jessup-Biden showed up. He sat there and railed at someone who deserved respect as if that would win him points.  In the process, while being verbose, Biden also spread on the lies nice and thick.

- Biden repeated statements that their intelligence after the Benghazi attack said that it was a spontaneous response to a video, and then later their intelligence was updated. Not so. The State Department officials who testified to congress have said they knew within ONE DAY that it was a terrorist attack.

- Biden repeated the lie that "letting the Bush tax cuts expire" for "millionaires" would not hit small businesses. Actually, Biden's "millionaires" include couples that earn a total of $250,000 per year. (For those of you from Palm Beach County, FL, $250,000 does not equal $1,000,000.)

- Biden repeated the lie that no religious institution, Catholic or otherwise, would be forced under Obamacare to provide contraception.

- Biden claimed he voted against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Actually, he voted for them.

There were many more, and you can read about them on Breitbart.com.

All Biden did was make a fool out of himself. So let's talk about the other two participants in the debate. First, the moderator, Martha Raddatz. She was clearly in the tank for Biden. She allowed Biden to interrupt Paul Ryan 82 times in the debate, often allowing Biden to trample his opponent's attempts to respond. Raddatz herself interrupted Paul Ryan 34 times. She also clearly failed, and it is my contention did so intentionally, did not reign in Biden.

Liberals are claiming that this was the liberal response to Governor Romney's intellectual trouncing of President Obama in the first Presidential debate. However, Governor Romney did not shout down President Obama and did not interrupt him 82 times. Romney simply let Obama talk and then explained why he was wrong.

Then there was Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan was confident. He was packed with facts. (Liberals will of course argue this point, because they love to break out liberal fact-checkers who always call out conservatives but rarely do liberals. They will say "They are nonpartisan!" ignoring the fact that so is MoveOn.org calls themselves nonpartisan too.) Congressman Ryan's performance reminded me of watching the fight at the end of Rocky II. Joe Biden was Apollo Creed, punching and punching and punching (albeit with far less skill than Creed did) and Ryan managed to take the hits then hit back. At the end, it was Ryan who hit a knockout blow with his closing statement. He ultimately explained the difference between his that Biden failed to do.

Ultimately, the debate seems to have been received by a whole lot of  people including Independents and women as the mean old geezer beating up the nice young man who lives next door and snow blows your driveway in the winter.  One article worded it this way: "Angry Joe and Martha vs. that nice Ryan fellow from Accounting."

At the end of the day, this is not helpful for the Obama campaign. Governor Romney remains in the lead. President Obama isn't able to successfully go toe to toe with Mitt Romney and his calm, adult facts. Make no mistake about it: In terms of public perception, Paul Ryan won the day.

Romney is a Strong Debater, MSM Will Claim Otherwise

The first of four debates is a week away.  Mitt Romney could genuinely use a good performance in these debates. (I won't go so far as to say Mitt NEEDS a great performance, because I do not believe for a minute these Drive-By Media polls that show Obama winning comfortably or even at all.)

Now I watched nearly every debate in the Republican primary season. I blogged on most of them. While I think Mitt was sometimes out debated by Newt Gingrich, President Obama is no Newt.  Take away his podium and all of a sudden Obama doesn't sound so smart.

The fact is I spent a lot of those debates rooting against Governor Romney and being frustrated at how well he performed in those debates because it meant my candidate (as you regular readers should know, I endorsed Newt Gingrich in the primary season) was losing ground.

Now I flat out guarantee you that the Drive-By Media is going to say that Obama won the debates in post-game. It turns out reality isn't much of a concern to the Drive-Bys. I can say this with such confidence because I remember the same Drive-By Media calling the flat retread of a convention by the Democrats brilliant and the energetic celebration of American by the Republicans flat. Just to shock you folks, the Drive-By Media is in the tank for Obama so they won't report reality.

However, the good news is the majority of Americans don't trust the media!  According to Gallup, 60% of Americans trust the media very little or not at all.  To get more specific, 58% of Democrats trust the media (shocker) while only 31% of Independents and 26% of Republicans trust the media.

Here's the reality: Barack Obama is not used to being questioned. He's used to kid gloves. You start daring to question his brilliance and he gets more flustered than a hen thrown out of a helicopter 100 feet off the ground. (You're welcome for that visual.)  If Mitt actually goes after him he's going to slam dunk Obama in these debates. Ditto for Paul Ryan in his debate with Joe Biden.

I'll be back in a week to point out I was right, but for now you've got the prediction in writing.  Be prepared for Mitt to mop the floor with Obama. Also be prepared for the Drive-By Media to tell you to try their weird Jedi Mind Trick and tell you that you did not see what you saw.

Joe Biden Breaks Out the Usual Baseless Attacks on Jobs Bill

Don't look now, friends, but the Obama Administration has gone and let Joe Biden talk again, with typical results. This time, the Vice President wants you to believe that, if the President's Jobs Bill isn't passed, rapes and murders will increase.  You read that right:  the Jobs Bill will prevent rape and murder.  Said the Vice President:


“In 2008, when Flint (MI) had 265 sworn officers on their police force, there were 35 murders and 91 rapes in this city,” Biden said, standing alongside city officials. “In 2010, when Flint had only 144 police officers, the murder rate climbed to 65 and rapes — just to pick two categories — climbed to 229. In 2011, you now only have 125 shields. God only knows what the numbers will be this year for Flint if we don’t rectify it.” (1)

There are just so very many holes in the Vice President's logic.  For example, how many murders and rapists stop so their victim can call the police?  How many rape and murder victims have warning so they CAN call the police?  Seriously, simple logic tells you that "call the police" is really not something that practically can be done to prevent a rape or murder in progress.  If and only if a police officer is nearby can that officer do pretty much anything.  Aside from that, it's pretty much up to the victim to either avoid such situations and/or be prepared for self defense by carrying mace or exercising your constitutional right to bear arms and carrying a gun.  For the record, I'm not blaming victims at all, I'm just saying that calling the police and waiting for them to arrive is just not a wise contingency plan.  What the police do in such situations is pretty much in the area of prosecuting justice after the crime.

Yet Vice President Biden wants you to think; think about this for a second; that Obama's Jobs Bill will prevent rape and murder.  (I for one can only believe Biden would be so brazen because I'm used to it.)  Of course the inherent assumption of the claim is "Republicans don't want to pass this bill, ergo Republicans don't want to prevent rape and murder."  It's a preposterous claim, of course.  It's preposterous to assume that more police officers would mean that a calling the police in the process of being raped is going to get an officer on the scene immediately, or that it's even reasonable to consider calling the police a defense when being attacked, and then expect the police to arrive in a minute or two before the actual crime is perpetrated.

But hey, maybe Biden was just being foolish (it is Joe Biden after all) and speaking rashly.  Surely he's retracted his statement by now, right?  Nope, he's doubling down on his ridiculous claim!  When he was pressed by a reporter, who, out of the blue, decided to actually be a journalist, to clarify his claim, Biden said,

"Murder will continue to rise. Rape will continue to rise. All crime will continue to rise." (2)

So not only is the Vice President making ridiculous claims, he's doubling down it it?  Wow, just wow.  If Biden genuinely believes this, he's even less intelligent than I thought.  Having never been a rapist or a murder, I can't say with certainty, but I do not think the simple presence of additional police offers adds to the deterrent value against crime, because ultimately where police serve as a deterrent it is in the realm of expected punishment, not in actually stopping such crimes as they are happening, and certainly not by being called to the scene of the crime WHILE THE CRIME IS IN PROGRESS to stop it. 

Biden's claim is preposterous.  It's also exactly what I've learned to expect from liberals.  Fortunately, I think the American public have smartened up on this baloney, and I believe these ad homonym attacks will simply end up hurting the Democratic Party cause.  Good thing, too, because America can't take any more of Obama's "fix it some more, it's not broken enough" mentality!
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(1) Daily Caller:  Biden: Pass this bill, prevent murders and rapes

(2) Joe Biden Warns Again: Rape, Murder Will Rise Without Jobs Bill