Chris Wallace called Vice President Joe Biden's demeanor "unprecedented" and "openly contemptuous and disrespectful."
"I don't believe I've ever seen a debate in which one participant was as openly disrespectful of the other as Biden was to Paul Ryan tonight."
And after concluding that the televised interpretation trumped the the audio and the transcript, making Biden the loser, Charles Krauthammer agreed with Wallace:
“I agree with Chris Wallace: It was sort of almost unprecedented and hugely condescending. I think that undid the force of his arguments and I think in the end, if television, you lose.”
Rather than reiterate my similar sentiments, I'll simply cast my agreement with ALL of the fthese comments concerning Thursday night's VP debate, specifically centered around Biden's bizarre behavior (we'll save the wealth of Ryan's impressive knowledge & arguments for a separate post)...
John Tabin: "Paul Ryan vs. The Joker"
Joe Biden, Batman's fiendish archenemy, grinned widely and laughed maniacally throughout his debate with Paul Ryan tonight. The vice president and Arkham Asylum escapee repeatedly interrupted Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's sidekick. Ryan remained unflappable, an extremely brave accomplishment given Biden's history with sidekicks; Biden famously murdered Jason Todd, the second Robin. In a debate that was heavy on foreign policy, defending the Obama administration's record required Biden to cripple the truth as severely as he crippled former Batgirl Barbara Gordon.
Liberals widely hailed Biden's performance. Everyone else was aghast. Like most vice presidential debates, the evening did not affect the election in any way.
Aaron Goldstein: "Biden sounded like he spent six hours at a bar"
My lasting impression of the sole VP debate between Vice-President Biden and Paul Ryan is that Biden sounded like a loudmouth at a bar who had spent the past six hours drinking and should have been cut off by the bartender five hours earlier. Paul Ryan, by contrast, was a paragon of sobriety.
Mark Levin: "Joe Biden was off his meds"
Martha Raddatz was awful, stepping all over Paul Ryan's statements. Joe Biden was off his meds, flailing with his hands, interrupting, repetitive, and whiny, which is what most of his base has wanted. And Paul Ryan was calm, cool, and collected, with a better second half in the debate.
And in J.P. Freire's piece 'Biden's goal was the wrong one', I particularly appreciated his final comment:
PS. I have another theory about why Biden was smiling so much:
So, I'll leave you with these words from Jeffrey Lord, and the brand-spanking new ad from the RNC...
The Biden smile tonight was glaringly out of place for reasons of simple respect to Ryan, not to mention the individual topics being discussed. What's to smirk about when discussing a dead Ambassador? Iran and the bomb? The unemployment rate in Biden's hometown of Scranton? Which, by the way, was clearly news to Biden.
ADDENDUM: Well, doesn't look like the smiles or 'malarkey' worked for ol' Joe. A CNN/ORC poll has already declared Ryan the winner...yes, I said Ryan!
