~thoughts on the Vice Presidential debate
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Let me say three things at the outset:
- Joe Biden won the Vice Presidential debate.
- Enthusiasm and assertiveness in defense of the truth is no vice.
- Despite any implications to the contrary by my choice of titles, I will forgo any lame analogies to Star Wars themes or characters ( well… at least I will try… “There is no try, only do…or do not.” Doh! ).
For those of you that are perhaps too young or, conversely, have become too feeble minded, to remember his pivotal speech during the 1964 Presidential campaign, I’ve paraphrased a former senator from Arizona named Barry Goldwater in my second point. I did this to illustrate a premise within the context of the right wing’s contention that Vice President Biden was too vociferous in his demeanor during his frequent rebuttals of congressman Ryan’s numerous erroneous statements in Thursday night’s debate. And I thought it appropriate to do that by employing the sentiment, if not the actual words, of a prominent Republican. One that is, in fact, still revered by some remaining vestiges of what has become, for all intents and purposes, our father’s Republican party.
While not correlative in representing an ideology in the same way that the actual verbatim slogan represented the political philosophy of that Senator from Arizona, it does, I think, accurately characterize the mission strategy of the Vice President in his approach to the debate.
Joe Biden went into the Vice Presidential debate on Thursday with a mandate: Bring the fight to the enemy. Stop the rampant and uninhibited false narrative that had been created and recreated in an almost asymmetrical fashion by the Romney campaign, thereby setting the record straight, in real time. And in doing so, begin to change the energy and momentum of the contest.
Joe Biden did that as only Joe Biden can; with dramatic, yet deeply authentic, bravado.
He also did something else in the process; something that is, in many ways, difficult to measure or quantify, but nevertheless essential in generating the all important energy and enthusiasm that is needed to prevail in a contest of this size and import. He gave the democratic base something that it has been lacking for the entire campaign season; a raucous and bruising primary style debate.
Here’s the thing: We have watched bemusedly over the course of many months as the Republicans have, metaphorically, devoured their young. References to the Greek Myths aside, it has been a strange slow motion train wreck of a primary season for the Republicans but at least they have been in that fight, while we on the Left have been spectators to it. Sitting and watching them from our primary-free sidelines as they fought and grew tougher, or if not “tougher” at least more wily.
The President and Vice President entered this campaign unchallenged. There was no winnowing out of lesser contenders and there was no seasoning or honing of combat tactics against a series of worthy opponents.
In the 08′ campaign Senator Barack Obama had to fight for his life in a brutal series of primary tests that prepared him ( and his supporters ) for an equally difficult campaign against the Republicans. In doing so he not only prepared himself mentally and physically for the challenge but in the process he generated an unprecedented amount of enthusiasm from a broad and strategic base of support.
I think we can all agree that being the President of the United States is a tough gig. I think that we can also agree that no President in the recent history of the republic ( with the possible exception of FDR ) as arrived at the big desk in the oval room with the deck stacked so heavily against him. It can take a lot out of a man during the course of a “normal” term, but the “sack of woe” that Barack Obama found waiting for him on January 20th 2009 was not even in the same zip code as normal. In addition to that, being the President requires a completely different rhythm and perspective than becoming the President.
In dealing with foreign dignitaries and heads of state ( and for that matter, home-grown, congressional adversaries…) that can often be difficult in their behavior and duplicitous in their intentions, a sitting President must adopt an air of strength and conciliation. It is a difficult balance to achieve and maintain. Many have fallen short, but Barack Obama has displayed an innate sense in this area. It has served him well and helped him weather some treacherous times in his freshman term. But that same rhythm and balance that has informed his work as the President has, perhaps counter-intuitively, impeded his work as a candidate, ironically, for the very office in which he is now serving.
That cognitive dissonance presented itself in the President’s demeanor during the first debate and was, I believe, the primary causative factor in his seemingly listless and laconic performance.
I believe that Joe Biden has, through his combative and heartening performance, forged a path to regaining that elusive campaign edge that the rigors of the office of the POTUS have dulled in President Obama and will allow him to once again become candidate Obama. It’s in him. We all know that it is. It has just needed a means to find its way to the fore once again.
Round two is about to begin. Sometimes it takes a poke in the nose and the taste of your own blood to get your head in the fight. When that bell rings I’m betting on the champ.
Forward!