In a normal Presidential election year, the one vice presidential debate is usually an exercise in political vanity but Campaign 2012 is anything but normal.
After President Barack Obama’s dismal debate performance last week put challenger Mitt Romney back into the race, the watchers and clockers will keep an eye on tonight’s veep talkfest between Vice President Joe Biden and GOP challenger Paul Ryan to see if the current vice president can save his boss’s ass.
That could be a challenge for Biden, the man of a thousand political faces, the vice president known for twisting facts, stepping on his constantly slipping tongue.
The sad fact that Obama must depend on Biden for a political comeback showcases how surreal the current campaign for the nation’s top job has become.
If the Republicans had found a real candidate for President, Obama should be polishing his resume and calling a moving company to relocate come January 2013.
At best, Obama is a lackluster President with a crappy record in his first term. He frittered away his first four years, blaming others for his mistakes and lack of leadership. Against a good candidate he would be toast. That a loser like Romney is even close is a sad testament to the sorry state of the American political system.
So now it is up to Joe Biden, the vice president who recently told voters in Danville, Virginia that “with your help we can carry North Carolina,” the veep who in 2010 mourned the death of the Irish Prime Minister’s mother — who was very much alive — and who — in front of an open mike — told Obama that signing of the health bill was a “big fucking deal.”
Yep, that Joe Biden.
Biden’s history of screw-ups is so bad that Time magazine published a list of the “Top 10 Joe Biden Gaffes.”
Biden’s last debate was with Sarah Palin, the laughing-stock veep candidate that the John McCain campaign brought in out of desperation. A political screwup with an IQ around that of the average plant, Palin still matched Biden in some parts of the debate and while most polls declared Biden the winner, he still didn’t win going away against an incredible lightweight.
“Paul Ryan may be just as much of a right-wing zealot at Palin but he’s a hell of a lot smarter than Palin and that could be a problem for Biden,” a longtime GOP consultant tells Capitol Hill Blue.
So can Biden get through tonight’s debate without messing up?
The odds are not good, which means it may well be up to Obama to save his own butt in this year’s anything-can-happen Presidential race.
6 thoughts on “Is it up to Joe Biden to save Barack Obama’s butt?”
I’m with Bluto on this one, Ms. Price. President Obama had many opportunities to veto bills he disagreed with, and he didn’t. Some of them didn’t come anywhere near passing with nearly automatic veto-overrride majorities, either.
Furthermore, even if they had overridden his veto, he could stand up straight and say, “Hey, I tried.”
He didn’t.
In. re. the article Publisher Thompson put his name to, I’m also not going to be entirely complimentary. It’s a ‘manufactroversy’, a debate found and founded by the media. Cui bono? If the race is a done deal, the media’s irrelevant. The media doesn’t like being irrelevant. Therefore, they’ll find and cook up whatever they can to keep the pot boiling, because that’s what they are rewarded (not always financially) for.
J.
Pop was known to say,
toast is just a zinger wrapped in insensitivity.
He never met Joe, or Rove.
Parody X paradox the political process goes.
How in the hell did they legislate such a fiefdom in plain sight ?
He bailed out everybody but the people. Where was he for ACORN and Planned Parenthood and that’s just a tiny part of the list of betrayals and outrages he visited on his own base. His so called Healthcare bill is just another Corp. giveaway masquerading as a plan. You can blame the Reptiles all you want,but this guy spent 4 yrs. trying to make deals with them and what you saw last week was more of the same old same old with him. He doesn’t get it though and he’s still talking about making deals with them if re-elected, as if that’s what the rest of us care about. He’d better start planning his retirement, cause he’s toast.
Bluto. I don’t understand your words. Obama has no Wall Street pals and he is facing defeat because the House and Senate have blocked his bills. It has put me out of the GOP to think they would go to so much trouble to keep the President from passing anything.
Our nation has felt the neglect from this action and I do not appreciate what the Tea Party has done. I’ve been a Republican since 1953 but watching the dirty tricks they have pulled has done me in. I’m very involved in politics but I cannot back any party that puts themselves over and above the nation.
I want no more wars and no more having the government working to destroy the United States. I am on the Board of Directors of many organizations that need government permission to exist but if it means fighting the religious right for the rights of my own people, then there is no purpose to my work. I work with Hospice and when this fails I work with Death with Dignity. I do not expect you to understand this kind of involvement because it deals with helping men and women get help in the last weeks of their lives. When a woman faces the decision of having an abortion to save her own life, we don’t need some smart ass like you chiming in.
Obama spent four yrs. delivering for his Wall st. pals and that’s why today he’s facing defeat. Maybe.
Thank you Chief, for putting many of our questions right up there for discussion. You made a very valid point that had the GOP located a viable Republican candidate, our President would not have taken a nap last week and prepared for the debate so desperately needed.
I agree with you that Paul Ryan is just as dangerous as anyone from the Birthers, Tea Party movement including Donald Trump, They all conspired to force an Obama failure.
I worry about the need for zingers and one liners brought into the debate to get the attention of the TV watchers. Too much “Cheers” and “I Love Lucy” has managed to destroy any serious debate
After the first debate I had to call my cable company to get CSPAN because if I had to listen to one more Big Bird joke, I would turn all the media off. If tonight’s debate trades serious subjects for laughs I will never watch MSNBC again.
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