By Victoria Neely Columnist
After Obama’s lacking performance in the first presidential debate last week, many anticipated the vice presidential debate eager to see Paul Ryan in action against Vice President Joe Biden. The vice president was a heavyweight in Congress before joining Barack Obama’s ticket in 2008. Many say that the years of delivering speeches in Congress played to his advantage on Thursday night. Both candidates came well prepared, but Biden’s overwhelming presence in the debate made it hard for Ryan to get ahead. Amid Biden’s continuous laughing, head shaking and repeated interruptions, Ryan remained calm and patient, as a vice presidential candidate should be.
It could be said that Obama’s campaign needed the energy that Biden brought to the debate on Thursday, but his behavior came off as rude, disrespectful and condescending. Many viewers had a hard time paying attention to anything other than Biden’s pearly whites, which we saw a lot of while he childishly laughed at a majority of what Paul Ryan said.
On the other hand, we had ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz moderating the debate, but from what I could tell, she must have thought she was running for office as well. She was too involved in the debate between the two candidates, and often interrupted Ryan, giving Biden yet another chance to gain the upper hand. No matter what the case, Ryan did a wonderful job at maintaining his composure, which is a department that Biden is known to lack in.
The candidates tackled all of the issues on the table: taxes, jobs, education, Medicare and Medicaid, social security, terrorist attacks in Libya, nuclear proliferation of Iran and so on. No new topics were presented except when Biden said, “We weren’t told they wanted more security,” regarding the four Americans who were killed in Libya last month. This statement directly contradicted State Department officials who at the congressional hearing a day earlier said that they had reviewed the requests for extra security, but denied them. With constant turmoil unraveling in the Middle East, Ryan pointed out that it took the president two weeks to come out with the truth—that the attacks in Libya were premeditated terrorist attacks and that his foreign policy is extremely lacking.
The generational gap between Biden and Ryan was made apparent by watching the way Biden reacted to points that Ryan made. It is hard to understand how Biden could laugh again and again throughout the 90-minute segment when high unemployment rates and terrorist attacks in Libya are the talking points. Supporters of the Obama-Biden ticket saw Biden’s performance as a huge energizer to the Obama campaign, but it is possible that his theatrical performance portrayed him as nothing more than a bully—which is not very attractive to undecided voters.
At the end of the day, people don’t vote for the vice presidential candidates, they vote for the presidential ones. The effect that this debate has on the race is unclear as of now, other than giving the voters a chance to see the running mates and judge whether they could handle stepping in as psresident if needed.