Vice President Joe Biden, a man with nearly four decades of experience in politics, has not been taking lightly his preparations for his debate against Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., holding practice sessions and perusing briefing books in recent months.
Now, in the wake of President Barack Obama’s widely panned performance last week in his first debate against Mitt Romney, the stakes for Biden are suddenly higher than ever. In the Oct. 11 vice presidential debate he must not only avoid making any gaffes but also try to puncture his Republican opponent’s arguments on taxes, entitlement reform and deficit reduction, something Obama was criticized for failing to do last week.
The pressure on Ryan has risen as well. Romney greatly exceeded expectations, appearing both presidential and in command of the debate stage. Ryan, who has never before debated at the national level, must prove that he is potential presidential material — while also defending the numbers that Romney put forth last week, especially on tax cuts.
Both sides are offering sky-high predictions for the other team.
“There’s a lot on the line,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a chief Romney-Ryan ally. “President Obama failed to defend his record and could not articulate a vision for the future. So I think that challenge now falls to Vice President Biden.”
Bill Burton, former White House deputy press secretary and co-founder of the Democratic super PAC Priorities USA, argued that the burden is actually on Ryan.
“Ryan is going to face pressure to explain some of the dishonest claims he and Romney have been making, especially on things like Medicare, taxes and the auto industry,” he said.
One point on which both sides appear to agree is that Biden is likely to be more aggressive in his faceoff against Ryan than Obama was debating Romney.
Speaking with reporters last Thursday before a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, rally at which he sharply criticized both Romney and Ryan, Biden previewed the debate by noting that he has been “studying up on Congressman Ryan’s positions on the issues.”
“I just want to make sure that when I say these things, I don’t have the congressman [say] — ‘No no no, I don’t have that position,’ or, ‘That’s not the governor’s position,’” Biden said. “So, it’s mainly getting the factual predicates for everything that — not everything, but the key issues on which Governor Romney has spoken and Congressman Ryan has.”
Ryan, for his part, said that he believes Biden will be an aggressive opponent.
“I expect the vice president to come at me like a cannonball,” Ryan told the conservative Weekly Standard on Thursday night. “He’ll be in full attack mode, and I don’t think he’ll let any inconvenient facts get in his way.”
Both White House contenders have been deeply engaged in debate preparations even as they maintain busy schedules on the campaign trail. For Biden, that has meant squeezing in time for debate preparations while visiting with his family in Delaware, as he did one weekend earlier this month. For Ryan, it has meant practice sessions in Washington, as well as his hometown of Janesville, Wis.
Biden who kicks off an intensive “debate camp” this week in Wilmington, Del., so far has engaged in two mock debates with Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who is playing the role of Ryan in the vice president’s practice sessions.
Ryan on Friday wrapped up a three-day debate camp in southwest Virginia; before that, he had held three mock debates with former U.S. solicitor general Ted Olson, who is playing the role of Biden. Kerry Healey, who served as Massachusetts’s lieutenant governor when Romney was governor, has been playing the role of moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC.
The candidates are not only scrutinizing each other’s past speeches and issue positions but also their recent appearances. After Biden’s blistering critique of the GOP ticket in Iowa, Ryan studied a transcript of the event. Biden’s preparation also has included reviewing video of Ryan interviews and speeches.
One Romney aide said that the presidential debate did little to change the substance of Ryan’s debate preparations “except that he needs to be even more prepared for a really aggressive tone and tenor from the vice president.”
“I think given the criticisms of the president for not attacking on the ‘47 percent’ or on Bain Capital, I think we can expect some of that,” said the aide, who was not authorized to speak publicly about Ryan’s preparations.
An Obama campaign official said that like the president, Biden views the debate “as an opportunity to speak directly to the American people about what’s at stake for the middle class in this election.”
“Congressman Ryan, on the other hand, has a choice to make Thursday: either stand by the extreme positions he’s been the face of for years — and that Governor Romney has fully embraced — like turning Medicare into a voucher program and cutting taxes for the wealthiest few at the expense of the middle class, or flat-out deny their existence as Governor Romney did in last week’s debate,” said the official, who like the Romney aide was not authorized to speak publicly about debate strategy.
As during Biden’s faceoff four years ago against former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008, there’s also the matter of the age and stature gap between the two candidates. Biden is 69, has run for president twice and served in the Senate for 36 years. Ryan is 42, has served in the House for 14 years and will make his first appearance on the national debate stage on Thursday in Danville, Ky.
Both sides sought to downplay the importance of that gap ahead of the debate. Democrats noted that Biden succeeded in navigating it four years ago, while Republicans pointed out that Ryan has served on the Hill for seven terms.
“Congressman Ryan and Sen. Biden were colleagues on Capitol Hill for many years,” said one Romney aide. “I know Congressman Ryan considers the vice president a friend.”
In addition to Obama’s debate performance, there’s also the matter of two recent remarks by Biden on the trail — his statement on Tuesday that the middle class has been “buried for the last four years,” and his comment Thursday that he and Obama would allow the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy to expire — which Republicans have seized in an effort to cast the vice president as an ineffective messenger.
“Joe Biden’s kind of become the Joe Pesci of the presidential ticket,” said Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., who stumped last week on behalf of the GOP ticket in Colorado. “You never know what’s going to come out of his mouth. This comment that he said earlier this week on burying the middle class — I don’t think that’s exactly the shovel-ready job that Barack Obama was thinking of — but the vice president’s right. That’s exactly what’s happened.”
Some Democrats dismiss the notion that the stakes are raised for Biden — and counter that the onus is on Ryan not only to defend Romney, but also to prove that he himself is ready for prime time.
“I think the pressure in my book is on Paul Ryan, because he’s got to demonstrate that he has what it takes to be president of the United States,” said Democratic strategist Doug Thornell. “We know he can work a calculator and a budget — not that the numbers add up — but there’s a lot of other qualities that he hasn’t demonstrated.”
House Chief Deputy Whip Peter Roskam, R-Ill., another close ally of Ryan’s, said that while his colleague had “led the House in a very able way … leading in a legislative body is one thing; leading with 60 million people looking at him is another.”
“Who knows who’s ever ready for that stage?” Roskam said. “I think that there’s hopes on Paul Ryan. There’s expectations on Joe Biden.”
Ryan had better be prepared to defend some fuzzy figures from R&R as well as parts of his agenda that Romney hasn’t totally agreed with publicly.
http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z349/nhthinker/obama-chair2.gif
Picture says it all…Chair had better comebacks than Obama did.
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/ The MOST accurate &
scientific election forecast Blog in the nation.
October 3, 2012, 2:30 PM
Obama Leads, but a Romney Comeback Might Start Out West With Colorado
By MICAH COHEN
We continue our Presidential Geography series, a one-by-one
examination of each state’s political landscape and how it’s changing.
Here is a look at Colorado, the Centennial State. FiveThirtyEight
spoke with Peter Hanson and Seth Masket, two professors of political
science at the University of Denver, and Kyle L. Saunders, an
associate professor of political science at Colorado State University.
Colorado, the host state of the first presidential debate on Wednesday
night, is a fitting platform for President Obama and Mitt Romney to
begin making their closing pitch to voters. Colorado is a persuadable
state, with a relatively balanced partisan split and a large number of
swing voters.
Moreover, if the debates represent Mr. Romney’s last, best chance at a
comeback, Colorado and the West may present the most likely starting
point. Mr. Obama’s standing, compared to 2008, has appeared to
deteriorate more in the West — specifically the Mountain West — than
in other regions. That shift is evident in Colorado, although Mr.
Obama has maintained a narrow lead in surveys there.
But the fact that Colorado is a political battleground at all is a
recent development. It was a reliably Republican state just 10 years
ago, having favored G.O.P. presidential candidates in every election
but two — 1964 and 1992 — since 1950.
In 2000, Al Gore won the national popular vote, but George W. Bush
easily carried Colorado. In 2002, Republicans held the governorship,
the state’s two United States Senate seats, five of Colorado’s seven
seats in the United States Congress, as well as majorities in the
Colorado State Senate and Statehouse.
But fast-forward six years, and everything had been reversed.
Democrats held both Senate seats, five United States Congressional
seats, and majorities in both houses of the Colorado legislature.
Republicans were left with only two House seats, exactly what
Democrats had been clinging to in 2002. Read more…
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/ The MOST accurate &
scientific election forecast Blog in the nation.
You’re not supposed to drink the bong water!
Oh my god you sound so desperate.
You sure are a fast writer… The Copy/Paste technique is awesome. The three and counting, book length rants are just sad.
Now with the Todd Akin RAPE “doctrine” and the Todd Akin and Paul Ryan connection redefining rape in the FORCIBLE RAPE BILL with 225 House Republican co-sponsors and the PERSONHOOD BILL also co-sponsored by Todd Akin and Paul Ryan, it can not be dismissed by Romney as just another flip flop!! The Romney Ryan ticket is irretrievably tied to Todd Akin and Paul Ryan sinking it like the Titanic after their NOMINATION at the Republican Convention!!
Vote straight Democratic ticket on November 6th and throw the freshman class of 2010 House Republicans out because they blindly opposed President Barack Obama and did nothing for the good of the country in their term in office!
The fact that Romney/Ryan purposely distort Obama’s $716B “savings” as cuts to medicare shows me just how dishonest they are. Especially since the “savings” are being spent on medical care, it doesn’t reduce benefits to seniors. Compare that to Ryan’s proposal that cuts the same amount and the money is used to make up the difference created by tax breaks for the very rich.
As The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn writes:
The most significant Medicare funding difference between the two sides, at least for the short- to medium-term, is how they handle the savings these cuts generate. Obamacare puts the money back into the pockets of people who need help with their medical bills. A portion of the money is earmarked for children and non-elderly Americans, who, starting in 2014, will become eligible for Medicaid or receive tax credits to offset the cost of private insurance. A smaller, but still significant, portion of the money is for seniors. It helps them pay for prescription drugs, by filling the “donut hole” in Medicare Part D coverage. It also eliminates out-of-pocket costs for annual wellness visits, some cancer screenings, and other preventative services.
…
Ryan’s budget—which, again, Romney has repeatedly embraced and said he would sign—actually takes those new benefits away. The Part D donut hole would open back up. Access to free preventative care would vanish. And where would Ryan and Romney put the money instead? They say it’s for deficit reduction. I’d say it’s really for their big new tax cuts, which disproportionately benefit the wealthy.
“The $716 billion in “savings” do not affect benefits for today’s seniors. Instead, they reduce provider reimbursements and are intended to curb waste, fraud and abuse.” —– And I’ll bet you ten thousand dollars, Ryan / Romney did NOT mention that little bit of information to the crowd…..
“When Paul Ryan says his priority is to make sure that we’re, you know – that he’s just being America’s accountant and trying to be responsible… I mean this is the same guy who voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that costs as much as my health care bill – but wasn’t paid for,” Obama said on April 15, 2011.
In 2008, Ryan released his “Roadmap for America’s Future,” which described his sweeping vision for how to gut America’s main entitlement programs of Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. The plan made him a hero among conservative circles, and Ryan eventually remade it as his “Path to Prosperity” plan, which President Barack Obama and Democrats have criticized for embracing tax cuts for the very rich while slashing government programs that help the poor. (It wasn’t just Democrats who criticized Ryan. While running for president, Newt Gingrich called Ryan’s plan “right wing social engineering,” which probably helped kill Gingrich’s bid.)
President Obama actually helped raise Ryan’s profile on the right by critiquing the Congressman’s budget, and just last year, Ryan was reportedly mulling his own run for president.
Critics have called Ryan’s 2011 proposal the “end of Medicare as we know it,” and that’s true. Until now, Medicare has operated as a “fee-for-service” system; under Ryan’s plan, it would operate more like a voucher system, although Ryan and his aides have resisted this term. Medicare would cease to pay for health services directly, instead operating as a board that approves a menu of health plans for public sale and doles out predetermined lumps of money to people enrolled in Medicare, to help them buy those plans.
After its release, the president called Ryan’s plan “fairly radical” and posited that it would “change our social compact in a pretty fundamental way,” ABC’s David Kerley reported.
“I guess you could call that bold. I would call it short-sighted,” Obama told 500 Facebook employees and 200 other attendees at a town-hall meeting held at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., in April 2011. “Nothing is easier than solving a problem on the backs of people who are poor or people who are powerless or don’t have lobbyists or don’t have clout.”
Things You Won’t Hear At The Republican National Convention:
“Over eight years under President George W. Bush, the debt also nearly doubled from $5.8 trillion in FY2001 to $10 trillion in FY2008. Under President Ronald Reagan, it nearly tripled from $998 billion to $2.6 trillion.”
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/03/debtor-nation/
Obama would have to increase the debt to about $30 trillion dollars to equal Reagan. He’d have to hit about $19 trillion to equal Bush. And the fact is, most of the $6 trillion accumulated under Obama isn’t his spending. About $5 trillion comes from Bush polices.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/adding-to-the-deficit-bush-vs-obama/2012/01/31/gIQAQ0kFgQ_graphic.html
There’s a pretty chart.====================================================
Who’s the Food Stamp President? George W. Bush.”U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition service for month-by-month figures going back to January 2001. And they show that under President George W. Bush the number of recipients rose by nearly 14.7 million. Nothing before comes close to that.And under Obama, the increase so far has been 14.2 million. To be exact, the program has so far grown by 444,574 fewer recipients during Obama’s time in office than during Bush’s.It’s possible that when the figures for January 2012 are available they will show that the gain under Obama has matched or exceeded the gain under Bush. But not if the short-term trend continues. The number getting food stamps declined by 43,528 in October.”http://www.factcheck.org/2012/01/newts-faulty-food-stamp-claim/And Bush didn’t even have the Great Recession to explain it.==========================================================
“Romney’s Impossible Tax PromiseExperts say he can’t cut rates without losing revenue or favoring the wealthy.Tax experts — including one who supports Romney’s plan — say the Republican presidential candidate’s promise to cut individual income tax rates without either favoring the wealthy or losing revenue isn’t mathematically possible.That’s the conclusion of the Tax Policy Center in a report the Romney campaign attacked as “biased” (although the campaign previously praised the TPC as “objective,” when it issued a report critical of a rival’s tax plan).And it’s also the conclusion of an expert from the pro-business Tax Foundation, who states that the Tax Policy Center analysis “correctly identified the Romney plan as a tax cut, at least in static terms, that accrues mainly to high-income earners.”http://factcheck.org/2012/08/romneys-impossible-tax-promise/Romney gets more, the middle class gets less.
=====================================================
Romney invested in Chinese and Iranian companiesPresidential candidate Mitt Romney promised in 2007 he would shed any investments that conflicted with Republican positions on hot-button domestic and foreign policy issues. But Romney’s family trusts kept some of those holdings and repeatedly bought new ones until 2010, when they were finally sold off for more than $3 million, according to a detailed review of Romney’s financial records by The Associated Press.Recently disclosed tax returns for three family trust funds for Romney, his wife, Ann, and their adult children show scores of trades in companies whose business operations are inconsistent with Republican Party stances that Romney favors on Iran, China, stem cell research, abortion and other issues.http://www.pressherald.com/news/Romney-invested-in-Chinese-and-Iranian-companies.html
On Friday the 13th Mitt Romney gives very defensive interviews to FIVE networks on a single day!! Just a few days ago Mitt Romney said to FOX News that explaining means that you are WEAK. So his five interviews explaining his time at Bain were signs of his weakness!!
Presidential Candidate Mr. Mitt Romney is clearly feeling the heat on his role in BAIN Capital which was supposed to be his sole criteria for creating jobs and running for the American Presidency!
When SEC documents show Mitt Romney as CEO, President and Chairman of Bain Capital in 2001 and 2002 then LEGALLY speaking Mitt Romney is responsible to all that goes on under the banner of Bain Capital. Mitt Romney can not just share the good like job creation and leave the ugly like Bankruptcies and layoffs behind as if he had nothing to do about them.
If he really wanted to disassociate himself from Bain Capital he could have resigned and sold all his shares in Bain Capital in February 1999 then it would have been a different matter but to share in the glory of Bain’s job creation accept a salary of $100,000 or MORE (where are the Tax Returns?) for three years and only to refuse to take the responsibility of Bankruptcies and layoffs on his WATCH (1999-2002) is trying to have it both ways and then complaining of playing politics having been caught with his hand in the proverbial Cookie Jar that is the very essence of an ACTIVE LEGAL ROLE in Bain Capital till 2002!!
Mitt Romney will have to face the consequences of this lie that Mitt Romney has brought on upon himself. If we keep reminding the Romney campaign of Bain and its ill effects on workers robbing them of their hard earned salaries and life long benefits all the way to November then today, 7/13/2012 (FRIDAY the 13th) will go down as the turning point of the 2012 Presidential election!
“Given the precedent set by past seven Presidents and Presidential candidates of releasing multi-year tax returns why is Romney making an exception?” Because he has a lot to hide, apparently.
He’s the only one that knows what’s in there, and apparently he’s made the judgement that he’s better off having us suspect the worst, rather than us knowing what’s in there, which apparently in his mind is worse than anything we’re likely to imagine.
Possibilities include:
(1) He ended up with 120 million in his 401K by the trick of agreeing with Bain to grossly undervalue the market value of his stock, then a few years later have the stock get unvalued to the stratosphere.
(2) He participated in the tax avoidance amnesty program of a few years back, avoiding major tax penalties or prosecution.
(3) Any one or more of the other borderl ine legal but very bad smelling tax dodges– “in-kind” trades, “no-risk” trades, no-risk write-offs, the list is almost endless.And BTW he HASn’t even released all of his 2010 return, he very conveniently left off the foreign investments and deposits form. Very convenient.And his argument that it would be “bothersome” to collect the tax data is a crock too– he supposedly collected 23 years of the stuff to show to McCain in 2008.============================================================Republicans betrayed their own conscience when they went against established Republican principles like the MANDATE over healthcare which was a Heritage foundation issue popularized by Gingrich.Obama did more than his share to UNITE but the Republicans were out to oppose for opposing sake and not following any policy or principles. In the famous words of Minority Senate Leader Mitch McConnell the Republicans were out to defeat the Obama agenda even if it went against established Republican policies set by past precedent.Mitch McConnell was out to make sure that President Obama remains a one term President and see where it has brought the Congress and its public esteem.Gingrich out of his own admission was out to defeat Obama from the day he was sworn in as President.You can not justify the Republicans as the “loyal” opposition as is the case in most mature democracies. They have been out to get President Obama by hook or by crook. A leader can meet the opposition half way but can not fold completely to their whims and fantasies like that of the current Tea Party affiliates.Republicans will loose in 2012 just like they did in 2008 but with a smaller margin because of the dark money of Billionaires due to Citizens United verdict of the right wing Supreme Court.============================================================
Ed Gillespie on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday 7/16/2012
“… Mitt Romney senior adviser Ed Gillespie said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” the GOP candidate “retroactively” retired from Bain Capital after the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics began…. ”
No body who has been drawing at LEAST $100,000.00 per year from 1999 to 2002 from Bain Capital “retroactively” retires from Bain Capital AFTER the 2002! Then why draw the salary of at LEAST $100,000.00 per year from 1999 to 2002 from Bain Capital if Romney retired from Bain “retroactively”!
“… Gillespie continued, “He took a leave of absence and, in fact, Candy, he ended up not going back at all and retired retroactively to February of 1999 as a result.”… ”
However SEC documents show Mitt Romney as sole owner of all shares of Bain Capital. Romney is also shown as CEO, President and Chairman of Board of Bain Capital in 2001 and 2002 then LEGALLY speaking Mitt Romney has been responsible to all that goes on under the banner of Bain Capital. Then to run for Governor of MA Romney sought residency of MA by lieu of his Bain positions. Now either Romney was at the Olympics OR he was at BAIN.
Only one can be true not BOTH at the same time simultaneously! Will the true Willard Mitt Romney stand up and accept ONE thing? Does Romney want to accept untrue SEC filings and be called a Felon or agree that he represented Bain from 1999 to 2002?
============================================================On Friday the 13th Mitt Romney gives very defensive interviews to FIVE networks on a single day!! Just a few days ago Mitt Romney said to FOX News that explaining means that you are WEAK. So his five interviews explaining his time at Bain were signs of his weakness!!Presidential Candidate Mr. Mitt Romney is clearly feeling the heat on his role in BAIN Capital which was supposed to be his sole criteria for creating jobs and running for the American Presidency!When SEC documents show Mitt Romney as CEO, President and Chairman of Bain Capital in 2001 and 2002 then LEGALLY speaking Mitt Romney is responsible to all that goes on under the banner of Bain Capital. Mitt Romney can not just share the good like job creation and leave the ugly like Bankruptcies and layoffs behind as if he had nothing to do about them. If he really wanted to disassociate himself from Bain Capital he could have resigned and sold all his shares in Bain Capital in February 1999 then it would have been a different matter but to share in the glory of Bain’s job creation accept a salary of $100,000 or MORE (where are the Tax Returns?) for three years and only to refuse to take the responsibility of Bankruptcies and layoffs on his WATCH (1999-2002) is trying to have it both ways and then complaining of playing politics having been caught with his hand in the proverbial Cookie Jar that is the very essence of an ACTIVE LEGAL ROLE in Bain Capital till 2002!! Mitt Romney will have to face the consequences of this lie that Mitt Romney has brought on upon himself. If we keep reminding the Romney campaign of Bain and its ill effects on workers robbing them of their hard earned salaries and life long benefits all the way to November then today, 7/13/2012 (FRIDAY the 13th) will go down as the turning point of the 2012 Presidential election!
Blah blah blah. Cut and paste. Have any original thoughts?
My my you have a busy mind. All of what you said seems to apply to the cabinet members that Obama has appointed. The Treasury Secretary is a known tax cheat!!
Now they know exactly what they’re dealing with, hopefully Biden won’t let Ryan get away with all the lies and flip-flopping that Romney got away with last week.
Using Biden and hope in the same sentence is funny. If you are pinning your hopes on the human gaffe machine there is really big trouble in Obama’s reelection chances. Biden himself said this week that the middle class has been buried. He also said that a big tax increase is coming our way and he is for it. Just keep believing those polls that wish that Obama is still ahead. Jimmy Obama is going down in November.
And Romney promised to close all the tax loopholes, deductions, credits, etc. You don’t think that’s going to make your taxes go up too?
Wonder if Biden will break out “they wanna put y’all back in chains” rhetoric. Biden will probably tell us we aare still experiemcing the recovery summer. Maybe he will elaborate on exactly what their dem controlled congress and senate did for 2 full years and maybe he can tell us why the senate hasn’t voted on a budget in 4 years. I think he should tell us how he agrees with Pelosi and that a bill should be voted for so we can see what’s in it. I will bet Biden will tell us how proud he is to have accomplished nothing except the amount of spending they have done. I will bet he will tell us how generous he is by donating 300 bucks a year to charity. He might even tell us he won’t charge the secret service rent for protecting him…oops..charge the taxpayer that is. Yep…Joe is one of us! And we KNOW he won’t lie like Obama did and does.
Joe Biden lost to Sarah Palin. He only needs to remind people of that to lower any expectation anyone might have. As long as he doesn’t make a pass at the moderator or use a racial epithet to describe any group, he will be given a pass as old, senile and cute. (Just what we want in someone one breath away.)
I just hope Ryan will ask him what the media refuses to ask: when did he learn that Benghazi was a terrorist attack and why would they try to conceal a terrorist attack from the American people?
Make sure to tune into Howie Carr (WVOM 103.9 FM @ 3:00PM) Friday as he has fun with the sure to come Biden Boo-Boos during the debate on Thursday night.
Should be interesting after the total carnage that took place last Wed.. Hopefully Biden wont be as lost as the President was without his teleprompter..
Oh my…
http://news.yahoo.com/gallup-tracking-shows-tightening-race-post-debate-161449845–abc-news-politics.html
When they ask Biden about Obamacare, he will tell us that “this is f%^%ing big!!”
I would truly be embarrassed if I had to count on Joe Biden in a debate. The man is an embarrassment to the democrat party and to this country.