By David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers –
WASHINGTON — The 90-minute showdown between Vice President Joe Biden and Republican challenger Paul Ryan may be most remembered for Biden’s grinning, laughing and even mocking his younger opponent. But the more lasting impact was reinforcing how this election is an unusually telling referendum on how people want America governed — and a call to arms for each party’s base.
Biden forcefully recited the Democratic mantra in ways that Democrats needed to hear after President Barack Obama let them down with an underwhelming performance in his first debate against Republican Mitt Romney.
Biden spoke with the passion and warmth Obama lacked. Biden, a skilled politician at ease talking to people, often addressing Ryan as “my friend,” effortlessly using anecdotes about his family to make his points, and turning serious and even somber when detailing his views on abortion.
His language was plain and pointed. There were no academic talking points about the perils of Romney’s tax cuts — “The middle class got knocked on their heels,” Biden protested. “The recession crushed them. They need some help now. The last people who need help are 120,000 families for another … $500 billion tax cut.”
He vigorously defended the Obama administration’s slow, arguably steady economic progress. “I don’t know how long it will take” to get the jobless rate, 7.8 percent last month, to drop further. But don’t worry, he urged: “We’re going to give you a fair shot again.”
Ryan presented the Republican line, talking tough on foreign policy and turning to the private sector to repair the economy. It was an almost scholarly performance, more from the head than the heart.
“We have three bottom lines” on taxes, he said: “Don’t raise the deficit, don’t raise taxes on the middle class and don’t lower the share of income that is borne by the high-income earners.”
History says vice presidential debates rarely matter, since people vote for president, not the running mate.
Still, in a skintight race with an unusually polarized electorate, where almost anything can make a difference, it’s likely the Biden-Ryan debate in Danville, Ky., will further incite the partisans.
