Last week's Presidential candidate debate was an unequivocal rout for Barack Obama. The aftermath of tonight's Vice Presidential candidate debate makes that clear: partisans from both sides of the spectrum are claiming that they won. Last week, only one side was saying that.
Obama's losses in the past week have been steady and disheartening, erasing all of the gains made by the Democratic convention, the 47% remarks, and the stupid declarations of Romney regarding the Egyptian embassy on 9/11.
Fivethirtyeight's electoral vote projection taken today.
The Obama campaign has hemorrhaged 31.3 electoral votes since last week, when Romney decisively bested the president. In a majority of the national tracking polls, Romney is currently either tied or leading (though not in swing state polls).
But tonight Biden probably turned that around. No sign is clearer than what the criticisms of the other side were. After the first debate, the impotent rage of Democrats, when not directed at Obama himself, was at Romney's demeanor, his interrupting of moderator Jim Lehrer, his hatred of Big Bird. That is, things that were procedural but not pertinent---insubstantial. This time? Republicans whine that Biden kept interrupting Ryan, that he was laughing and mugging for the camera, and that the moderator (an excellent Martha Raddatz) was biased. Playing the ref never looks good, no matter who does it.
What does winning mean in this case? Conventional wisdom, which I do not disagree with, is that Biden needed a good and tenacious showing to prove to supporters that Obama "gets it", that he knows he needs to get his shit together and prepare properly for debates. The onus is still on him to pull this out in the final stretch, but it appears that the campaign knows that the winning arguments are going to be about the 47%, a vigorous debunking of the claim that Obama raided Medicare, and a full-throated announcement that Romney has no details because he has no positions.
Other thoughts:
- A trending search-word during the debate on Google: conflating. Voters don't know that word?
- I really hope this ends the discussion of the politics of Big Bird until at least the next midterm elections.
- Martha Raddatz was outstanding, but maybe only in contrast. I'm not sure she's any better than a moderator ought to be.
- Ryan started talking about contraception during a very specific answer that was supposed to be about abortion. I don't see these as being linked, but what do I know?
- The photos released today of Paul Ryan working out were fucking weird.