What I took particular notice of was the odd reversal of war positions. What Mr. Biden was relaying in regard to the pullout from Afghanistan was the notion that the Afghans will never step up to the plate until American forces begin to remove themselves from the equation. While the overriding idea–ending the war–is consistent with the desires of the Democratic base the argument is actually astonishingly conservative. While Mr. Ryan was concerned with “losing the gains we’ve gained”, and rightfully so, he didn’t really outline what could be done to ensure they would or could be secured. From a societal perspective Mr. Ryan isn’t willing to let Afghan forces do what he and other conservatives have been suggesting that the lower economic rung do as a philosophical argument: take matters into your own hands without the costly intervention of the US Government. Conversely then, Biden seems to be arguing that United States has done enough. While economics and war are in this instance not the same it just seems an odd inversion of the same basic arguments and positions on different issues.
Insofar as the scorecard is concerned many polls are calling this one a veritable draw. The numbers are well within the margins of error in one direction or the other—which was my actual assessment of the score card for the presidential debate as well. As far as confidence well Joe Biden was exuding it, possibly to a fault, while Ryan seemed confident—especially when delivering his zingers vis-à-vis Biden’s frequently covered gaffes—it just wasn’t as dynamic. Conservatives took offense to a similar, though admittedly heightened, use of the same aggressive tactic. Perhaps it came off more so due to the format of this debate? Or maybe he was just more aggressive and the conservative are being thinned skinned about their young Mr. Ryan. In any event I would be remiss not to mention the stellar job Martha Raddatz did as moderator in this event–even if Sean Hannity thinks she was biased. I think any question of her leanings and relationship with the president were quickly dispelled—and while the squeaky wheel did the grease insofar as the clock is concerned I think she was equally critical of both candidates, and demanded specifics often from them both. Both men were able to outline the dogma of their running mate’s campaign but the quality most Americans want is consistency which they may not get from either set of candidates as both sides are back peddling as hard as they are pressing forward. Though V.P. debates classically don’t hold too much weight there seemed to be a lot of eyes on this years due to Ryan’s rockstar status and the tumultuous nature of this election—a nature that neither candidate seemed keen on confronting in the last question of the debate.
I think the real question to ponder here is “To whom are these debates being directed?” The issue that rises in my mind is that most of the informed electorate made their decisions long ago. The divided and fractured ideologies held in this country are a hard line and those that are still sitting on the fence are becoming increasingly rare (even if they don’t want to admit they’ve decided one way or the other). With the divisions so hard and the election so spiteful and venomous, and the state of the nation so tumultuous I think at this point the rest of the election hinges on which candidate is going to slip on what banana peel and when…and the next debates are going to offer just that pitfall.
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Very fair and somewhat accurate assessment of the VP Debate, I have no quarrel with this round up. Well stated Mr. Melendez.