http://frontpagemag.com/2012/matthew-vadum/joe-biden-unhinged/print/
As I observed the words and demeanor of Vice President Joe Biden all throughout last night’s debate a line from Hamlet kept running through my mind.
“That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain,” William Shakespeare wrote. How better to sum up the most unctuous, disingenuous vice president in this writer’s lifetime?
The radical left-wing Delawarean showed the same loathsome traits that he displayed during his debate with Sarah Palin four years ago. But this time, because he wasn’t facing a woman he wasn’t walking on eggshells, terrified of offending female voters. This allowed his worst characteristics to rise to the surface, unburdened by natural inhibitions.
While his opponent, Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), was relatively relaxed, Biden was everyone’s obnoxious, overbearing, opinionated relative who makes up for the weakness of his arguments by making them loudly. As conservative comedian Brian Sack tweeted, the debate was “Too Chill Boy vs. Obnoxious Grandaddy.”
Throughout the debate Biden made no attempt to conceal his contempt for Ryan. It is hard to say if Biden showed greater disdain for his adversary than President Obama showed for Mitt Romney in the Colorado conversation last week.
Some observers, buoyed by impossibly high expectations, were destined to be disappointed unless Ryan landed a devastating knockout. Ryan did well but such a punch never came. A knockout always seemed unlikely because Biden is so well known for exaggerating, telling tall tales, and saying downright absurd things.
“The vice president knows sometimes the words don’t come out of your mouth the right way,” Ryan said.
Even though Ryan clearly seemed to be feeling the pressure, he wasn’t cowed by Biden. He taunted the vice president, noting that Biden is “under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground” after Romney pulverized Obama during the debate last week.
Ryan lamented that “hope and change” had been replaced by “attack, blame, and defame.”
“President Obama had his chance,” Ryan said. “He made his choices.”
Ryan rejected the fundamental transformation of America sought by Obama. “We will not try to replace our founding principles,” Ryan said. “We will reapply our founding principles.” Although much younger than Biden, Ryan was the only adult sitting at the table.