My feelings about Biden's performance are mixed, but overall I thought he did quite well. On the substance, he hit most of the points I was hoping for and he directly challenged the veracity of Ryan's statements. Win, win.
On style, though, he walked close to the edge with his amused disbelief of what came out of Ryan's mouth, interrupting too frequently and displaying an angry demeanor. Ryan, meanwhile, was mostly steady and measured, showing a glimpse of dickishness only once; when explaining the order of the seasons in Afghanistan ("Spring, summer, fall. It's warm, or it's not.").
The bottom line is that partisans from each side likely came away feeling their guy won and the other guy was terrible. Liberals were fired up by Biden's intensity and truth telling, while believing that Ryan was lying and smug. Conservatives will feel that Ryan was more of a statesman and Biden was rude and wrong on the facts.
Britt Hume felt he was looking into a funhouse mirror that reflected version of himself; a cranky old man, but with a smile.
The second bottom line (I only have two bottom lines, not three) is that VP debates have never moved the needle on presidential races, so the outcome is unlikely to significantly change the overall trend line, but hopefully it will contribute to stopping the current tailspin of the Obama campaign.
The Top 10 List:
1) Romney Lies
On the topic of sanctions for Iran Biden said, "Governor Romney says we – we should continue. I may be mistaken. He changes his mind so often, I could be wrong." Romney's many changing positions is probably a bigger weakness than his falsehoods.
2) Ryan Lies
Very early in the Debate, Biden said in response to Ryan, "With all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey." On the topic of Libya, Obama/Biden are not in a strong position, but Biden pointed out that Ryan cut the security budget and Romney tried to make political hay out of an ongoing tragedy.
3) 47%
Biden mentioned the 47% quote 5 times, and also a "30% are takers" quote from Ryan that I had been unaware of. He tied this comment to Norquist's pledge and to active military. In response to Romney's recent backpedaling on that statement Biden said, "if you heard 47 percent and you think he just made a mistake, then...I got a bridge to sell you."
4) Legitimate Rape
Biden hit this point well at the end of the debate with, "I guess he accepts Governor
Romney's position now, because in the past he has argued that there was - there's rape and forcible rape. He's argued that in the case of rape or incest...it would be a crime to engage in having an abortion."
5) 716 Billion
Ryan did indeed raise this claim, and Biden swatted it back by explaining that it is a savings, not a cut, and touted the support of the AMA and AARP. Rather than state that Ryan's plan includes the same savings, he said "They want to wipe this
all out."
6) Deficit
Biden did a good job early on linking the deficit and recession to the Republicans and Romney/Ryan when he said, "they talk about this Great Recession if it fell out of the sky... It came from this man voting to put two wars on a credit card, to at the
same time put a prescription drug benefit on the credit card, a trillion-dollar tax cut for the very wealthy. I was there. I voted against them."
7) Enough Time
Biden didn't use the "not enough time" quote, but he did scoff at Ryan's lack of details and refuted the assertion that filling in details later is "how you get things done." This was one of Biden's most agressive, perhaps rude, moments.
8a) Number One Priority
I did not hear Biden mention the McConnel statement about making Obama a one term president. He scoffed at the idea of Republican bipartisanship, but not in an effective way or with enough emphasis.
8b) Let Detroit go Bankrupt
This point was made strongly.
9) Ayn Rand
This was, not surprisingly, not mentioned.
10) We've seen this before
Reagan was mentioned, but in a positive way regarding how he worked with Tip O'Neill and Biden. Biden did challenge the math of the Romney tax plan, but didn't harken to the Reagan example to make the point.
Biden mentioned about 75% of my Top Ten list, and he hit the essence of a couple more.
My third bottom line, I have to give him high marks for going after Romney/Ryan on the facts, and calling them out on their positions and statements.
It was a good debate for Mr. Biden, though again it was a performance that partisans will see very differently. Unlike Obama's performance, which even most liberals could acknowledge was very poor, Ryan did a credible enough job that those predisposed to liking him would count Ryan the winner. Unlike Romney, Biden's demeanor veered off the statesman course, which may have turned off some in the middle who would prefer that we all just get along.
I score this as a strong win for Obama/Biden. It has righted the ship, so that when Obama takes the helm again on Tuesday he has the opportunity to get back on course.
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