Debate Watch: What is Joe Biden Up Against?

Since Barack Obama selected Senator Joe Biden as his running mate just prior to the Democratic National Convention in August, little attention has been paid to the Senator from Delaware. With all of the media's attention focused on Obama himself (as well as Sarah Palin of course), little focus has been given to Biden. A few bloggers have noticed him, however.

Earlier this month, Libyan blogger on the edge of something remarked upon Obama's selection of Biden, saying:

They say that Senator Obama isn't qualified because of his lack of foreign policy experience but he does have Senator Joe Biden who is the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the US senate .This is the balance the Democratic ticket needs .

Last week, bloggers around the world watched as presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain debated on television. Tonight, they will have a chance to give Joe Biden a second look, as he debates Sarah Palin in the first and only vice presidential debate. Some bloggers, like Veritas Nihilum Vincet in Taiwan, are concerned about Biden's debate skills. The blogger says:

Over to Biden. I predict lengthy wind, a gaffe here and there, and the moderator having to ring the bell on his inability to finish within the 90 seconds allotted.

IF Palin stutters something nonsensical, it would be perfectly appropriate to take a full 10 seconds or so for a WTF? Face.
But in the face of heavily prepped, fairly delivered, folksy down home common sense platitudes mixed in with the most vicious, ugly, racist, xenophobic and fear-mongering attacks on Obama, Biden will be forced to say something.
I just hope he doesn’t take the bait and try to defend Obama. Obama’s a big boy and can stand up for himself…has done so exceptionally well over the past two years. He predicted withering personal attacks – Biden should let him be right about that.
The only road for Joe is to state facts: Republican misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance (specifically, in order, the economy, Iraq and New Orleans); John McCain’s flip-flopping pretensions to competence; the Obama/Biden plan: Details and good judgment…far better than the alternative presented by Ms. Palin and her running mate.
If Caribou Barbie can manage to stick to the script Karl Rove writes for her, good for her. Give her a gold star and buy her a fuckin’ ice cream cone. Just don’t engage the blithering twit. She hasn’t earned the right to be on that stage, and ought not be given the credit of a direct response to anything that spills out of her incompetent Miss Congeniality trap.

Spanish-American Claudia, writing for PoliGazette, is concerned that Biden won't be able to hold his feelings about Palin inside. The blogger muses:

At this point, the VP debate is creating the expectations of a monster truck rally. It will be watched purely for the spectacle, to see big cars errupt in flames. The narrative is basically set in stone that this VP debate exists to see if Biden can actually achieve putting his whole leg in his mouth and to see if Palin can actually achieve speaking for upwards of an hour without saying anything coherent.

The expectations are so low for Palin, after these disasterous few weeks, that if she comes accross as even vaguely hominid, she may well be declared the victor, especially if Biden manages to go haywire (and he tends to) and Palin can be portrayed as being bullied by a sexist and condescending Biden. Expectations have never been lowered so much, not even for President Bush. Palin WILL exceed expectations if only because it’s almost physically impossible not to.

Sultan Knish, based in Israel, is equally unimpressed with Biden:

Finally there's Joe Biden, a one man gaffe machine that the media either refuses to report on or simply laughs off his endless stupidities. Is a man who comes blind stinking drunk to a campaign rally really qualified to be President? What about a man who contradicts himself from day to day.

And barbarena.us, feels even more strongly about Biden, claiming that his “real American” image is false. The blogger, originally from Nicaragua, says:

Those silly Dumbocrats think that they can fool all of the people all of the time. They introduced Joe Biden as a regular guy from Scrampton, PA who lives like the rest of us.

But not every blogger takes an anti-Biden stance. The England for Obama bloggers feel that if the debate is kept to major national issues and international affairs (as opposed to, perhaps, social issues), Biden will do just fine. They say:

If the VP debate focuses on these two big issues, I think Biden will do just fine – and Palin will hopefully come across as the clueless no-hoper she is. And if she goes on the attack, and Biden keeps cool and generous (as Obama did in the face of McCain’s sneers and body language), then hopefully she’ll receive as negative a public reaction as McCain did. And either way: if she just keeps talking for her 90 seconds without pausing for breath – as she seems to do above – then maybe America will just be sick to death of the sound of her voice by the end of the debate, and be unable to contemplate four more years of it? (In simple oratorial, cadence tones, McCain and Palin are an utter nightmare compared to the voices of Obama and Biden).

To wrap things up and get us excited for the debate, a blogger from New Zealand writes for Lucire magazine's blog:

As the debate between Gov. Palin and her rival, Sen. Joe Biden, begins tonight in the US, one only hopes that it will get to the substance. The Republicans and Democrats are opposed on so many things and in some respects, Gov. Palin is a divisive figure. But the American media’s sexist performance of late does not give me much confidence in the fairness of their post-debate evaluation.

If you are located outside of the United States and don't know how to find the debates on TV, tune into MyDebates at 9:00 pm EST.

1 comment

Join the conversation

Authors, please log in »

Guidelines

  • All comments are reviewed by a moderator. Do not submit your comment more than once or it may be identified as spam.
  • Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.