The Role Reversal of the Vice Presidential Debate

Well, at least now we know that Vice President Biden is no push-over…of course we knew that before. At Thursday night’s Vice Presidential debate we saw a number of character traits arise, not only in Mr. Biden, but in Congressman Paul Ryan that are very telling towards where they are in respect to their ability to articulate their running mates positions and records. Additionally we saw what happens when the tables are turned on the conservative constituency in terms of tact and tactic, and how they react, but those were not the only role reversals seen in the debate.

In terms of confidence and bluster the roles seemed to be reversed in Thursday night’s VEEP debate. While Ryan has his talking points in order, he remained cyclical on them returning often to the same key phrases and points—this is a traditionally effective strategy in education, politics, and religion, however it was lacking in the delivery to have made it truly effective in that preacher-man kind of way. In Ryan’s defense he took his time in delivering what he had to say and in a clear effort to please his constituents in the Conservative Talk and News Media called attention to all of their favorite (or least favorite as the case may be) parts of the Obama Administration’s record. What is more telling however is the fact in an overtly cagey attempt to avoid the open question marks of some of the Romney/Ryan campaign’s platforms Mr. Ryan attempted to hide behind the goal of bipartisanship. When asked where the unilateral 20% tax cut would come from, it became glaringly apparent that Mr. Ryan did not know but was not willing to say. Additionally he couldn’t seem to answer a number of other specific questions about withdrawal time table extensions, and what “more” could be done in respect to the civil war in Syria (since he clearly stated that boots on the ground was not really an option unless US national security is directly threatened—a fair statement on its own). Where Mr. Ryan did shine was at rattling off relevant and pertinent statistics and figures (which is his undisputed forte).