How is the @JoeBiden debate with @PaulRyanVP going to play out in Danville Kentucky October 11, 2012?
Biden has established, perhaps, two reputations. One, he's one of America's longest serving senators. He has a reputation for being able to speak across the aisle and develop coalitions to make legislative progress. He works well in elbow to elbow conversations. Two, he has a reputation for making statements that the flackmasters see as rising partridges above the auditoriums of America. And the flackmasters have taken many, many rhetorical blasts at his comments in Danville, Virginia. One wonders, how will he handle going response to response with Paul Ryan?
Ryan impresses me as cordial. Indeed, I am amazed how respectful he speaks when he speaks about President Obama. Biden strikes me as collegial, and he'll regard Ryan as a colleague. This makes me wonder if this will be treated as a duel, where both men take ten paces, turn, and fire over the opponent's left shoulder. Ryan doesn't need a knock-out blow against Biden. Biden will be well rehearsed, and will have good answers for any of a range of questions. I anticipate a draw. Ryan needs to be perceived as a man who has toed the Romney line, so he will be there to deliver his comments that forward the dissemination of the Romney message. Ryan has to take care not to freak the swing voters out by striking too caustically and boldly at Biden. He just has to make his points and not speak to overcome. We need comfort factor with Ryan, so he'll just have a conversation onstage with Biden. Biden is known for wit and self-effacement. As a seventy year old man, I think he'll be able to charm the respectful Ryan and maybe land a few jests. I am looking forward to this match between a pair of men who have almost three decades difference in their ages. This will be a chess game played in a televised drawing room in Danville, Kentucky, the kind two men play for the entertainment of onlookers.Breitbart Blog has begun to speculate on the match up:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/08/14/Team-Obama-Confident-Biden-Can-Take-On-Ryan-In-Debate