The vice-presidential debate this past week was everything the presidential debate was not. The moderator, Martha Raddatz, did the job she was supposed to do. She asked probing questions and kept strict order in the exchange between Paul Ryan and Joe Biden.
In a widely praised performance, Biden brought the debate game Democrats had hoped for after the dismal performance by President Barack Obama. Despite Biden having a clear win in the debate, it was the moderator Martha Raddatz that received the most praise.
The Huffington Post characterized Raddatz’s moderating as “a performance praised for its tenacity and impressive follow-ups, the veteran ABC News correspondent pushed the sitting and would-be VP to answer questions in detail, stick to their time limits and address uncomfortable topics.”
Beyond the reviews of the moderator, the conventional wisdom ruled that Biden had a decisive win against Ryan. ABC News reported, “Biden drove a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Democratic Party last night with the kind of persistent and colorful attack on the Romney ticket that President Obama had struggled to make just a week before.”
Indeed, the vice president hammered in multiple strong arguments while Ryan searched for his own voice in the night. Biden called out the 47 percent comment made by Mitt Romney. “These people are my mom and dad, the people I grew up with, my neighbors,” Biden said, growing flush. “They pay more effective tax than Governor Romney pays in his federal income tax. They are elderly people who, in fact, are living off of Social Security. They are veterans who are fighting in Afghanistan right now who are not, quote ‘not paying taxes.’”
Vice President Biden brought the fire and passion to the debate that had been lacking from President Obama’s mild mannered performance. Biden laid down a solid foundation for the vision he sees America heading towards while simultaneously calling out the lies and mistruths spoken by Ryan, often with a derisive smile. Biden’s son, Beau, commented on his father’s performance in a Huffington Post article saying, “My father was enjoying himself, and he was in command of the stage.”
The debate win is something the Democrats sorely needed. Polls have had a distinct swing towards Romney over the past week, creating a tie in the polls but with Obama having an advantage in the Electoral College.
The debate performance by Romney has helped him energize his base rather than win over a slew of independents. This is due to Romney gaining a substantial amount in national polls but gaining marginally in the swing state polls. In the electoral blog FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver characterized the state of the race. “Although Mr. Obama got a distinctly poor poll in Florida, which showed him seven points behind there, the rest of Thursday’s state-level data, like a series of polls by Quinnipiac University and Marist College, were reasonably good for him,” he said. “In surveys of competitive states that were released over the course of the day, he held the lead with 11 polls to Romney’s six.”
Thus, the probability of Obama winning the Electoral College but losing the popular vote has risen as his standing in the national polls has eroded but has remained slightly below pre-debate numbers in swing states.
Republicans, who quickly realized their candidate lost the debate, began attacking Biden solely on demeanor. Biden smiled often during the debate as his disbelief of Ryan’s arguments bordered on derision and disdain.
A Romney campaign spokesman stated after the debate in a LA Times article, “I think there was a lot of incredulity. What is he doing? Why is he doing that? …. There were a couple of times when it just seemed really inappropriate.”
The excessive smiling done by Biden, especially during sensitive topics, may have bordered the line into incredulity. However, on the merits of pure substance alone, Biden won the debate by pointing out the hypocrisy of Congressman Ryan.
Vice President Biden laid into Ryan’s criticism on embassy security by pointing out the fact that the congressman had voted to cut the budget for embassy security. Biden stated, “Number one, this lecture on embassy security — the congressman here cut embassy security in his budget by $300 million below what we asked for.”
Much of the criticism by the Romney-Ryan ticket that had been lobbed at the president, were derisively thrown back by the vice president. This was unlike President Obama who let most of Romney’s accusations and insinuations stay unchallenged.
The debate performance given by Biden was the crucial performance needed to re-energize Democrats after a demoralizing performance by the president. The forceful Biden demonstrated a control of the narrative and the facts, which left Congressman Ryan struggling to keep up.
Alex Caraballo can be reached at alex.caraballo@spartans.ut.edu