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Paul Ryan performed as expected: he was relaxed, cool—for the most part, although his Irish dander got up twice—and in command of his facts and statistics. His weaknesses? He utterly failed to clarify how Republicans would address the Syria solution, and instead kept harping on the Obama administration’s declaration of Assad as a reformer. Also, his answer on the penultimate question—what would you say to a soldier who says the campaign has been getting too negative—was overly defensive. The Czar will answer this question at the end of this post.
Other than that, Ryan was collected and ready. He knew his millions from his billions and trillions. He made numerous references to individual people (by name) that he has met along his campaign stops. He looked very much in order and maintained a generally eager-to-be-here attitude.
Vice President Biden, by utter contrast, was loud, abrasive, and easily rattled. He interrupted constantly, and whined twice that he was not getting enough time—both times being admonished by the moderator. He was entirely off-putting, and seems to think that an aggressive pit bull is exemplified by a bull in a china shop: he was a mess. His frequent chuckles to himself were a disaster. Perhaps he thought he could belittle Paul Ryan by laughing to himself, but when Ryan is talking about, say, Americans suffering from unemployment, Americans don’t want to see Biden laughing away as if the whole idea is, actually, rather entertaining.
Biden’s best moments were two-fold: first, when he talked about his faith. His voice went low, he maintained easy eye contact, and he talked about what it meant to incorporate faith into politics. He showed that he definitely could be a nice guy when the moment strikes him. Secondly, Biden did well on his closing statement. He made it personal, about why he cares about politics, and why it all still matters to him.
Unfortunately, very little of that will work for him. Even Biden’s most ardent supporters must conclude he was rude, at best, and stammered too often. But the chuckling thing—good God, he looked like he found every current catastrophe at home and abroad like a great dirty joke at our expense.
No, this will not go down well for the Obama campaign. Was Ryan the smiling, winking, warm, and charming guy Republicans were hoping for? No—but he was certainly no robot. He was solid on his answers, skilled in his topics, and able to demonstrate a fluency with facts and figures and geographic locations.
Too bad about the second-to-last question. If the Czar were asked what to say to a service person who was disgusted with the negativity, the Czar might have answered like this:
The Czar would thank him or her for serving our country. Yes, there has been negativity in this campaign. When asked the same question, our opponent elected to offer negative comments right here and right now. But we say to you that you should know how much our country loves you. How much we suffer with you, and how much we understand what you do for us every day. And we also know that you do it because you know this country is worth fighting for. And it is worth fighting for as hard as you can. But yeah, America is hurting really badly right now—by all accounts, as bad as it has ever suffered. We need you to understand that there is a fight at home just as serious as your fight overseas, and sometimes it looks like our fight at home is not going well. But we are turning the tide. We are making us worth fighting for. Americans know what you do for them, but they are starting to realize what they need to do for each other. We need to vote, and we need to protect our freedoms and liberties. We want this country to be the same great nation you remember it to be. With God’s grace, you will be home soon. And we want you to love the idea of coming home.Having something like that, before hitting your closing comments, would be a lot better than using your time to gripe about Joe Biden.
Just our thoughts.
