Biden Loses It

This evening, vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) took on Vice President Joe Biden in a wide-ranging debate covering everything from Libya and Iran to the economy. Biden’s demeanor was the story of the evening: smirking, laughing, snorting, shaking his head. The strategy seems to have been to laugh off America’s problems, since the Obama administration has done nothing to solve them.

The debate itself was secondary to the demeanor of Biden. Biden had nothing to run on, so he decided to distract. And those pearly whites were a bizarre distraction from what could have been a substantive debate.
Biden interrupted Ryan repeatedly. He would not allow Ryan to finish an answer; where he stopped interrupting for even a few moments, his moderator ally, Martha Raddatz, jumped in to help him cut Ryan short.
This was the big problem for Biden going in:

The Reality Principle

Obama and Biden were winning—until they faced actual opponents

• Democrats spent $200 million demonizing monsters of their own creation
• Obama caricature of Romney dissolves on first contact with reality
• An open race now that illusions have been punctured by debates

Hold it, I’m confused. I watched all of the vice presidential debate last night, and someone did not show up. Vice President Joe Biden was there—how could one miss him, with all the grinning, grunting, interrupting, and sneering. But where was the Ayn Rand-worshiping, rape-redefining, fanatically exercising zealot who wants to throw grandmothers off of cliffs and whose budget plan is, according to the president, “thinly veiled Social Darwinism” that is “antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility”? That Paul Ryan was nowhere to be found.

6 of Bidens False Statements

1. Biden: Leaders Support Sequestration 

Reality: No they don't

Joe Biden said that the military has asked for a smaller, leaner army, implicitly justifying the sequestration.
Many military and congressional leaders, however, have registered their opposition to the military cuts in the sequestration, with one saying it would “hollow” the military.
The Foreign Policy Initiative compiled a list of legislative, executive, and military leaders, who have opposed the sequestration cuts.
Here are three highlights from military leaders:

LIVE Fact Check: The Joe Biden Lie Detector

Welcome to the Joe Biden Lie Detector - we'll be updating this post throughout the debate and the aftermath. You can also follow along on Twitter for updates and spin-off debates by searching for #BidenLieDetector.

5:00 p.m EDT
Long before the Vice Presidential debate began, the Obama campaign tried to smear Rep. Paul Ryan as a liar. It's a "low-rent" tactic, an attempt to avoid debate--and a lie in itself, since Ryan is one of the most honest politicians in America. It's also a classic case of psychological projection--since Vice President Biden has been a master of malarkey his whole life, and lied his way through the 2008 debate against Gov. Sarah Palin.
Tonight, Biden has promised to do better. He told reporters yesterday that he would not say "anything in the debate that's not completely accurate." So, we're going to hold Uncle Joe to that 100% standard. Stay tuned.

7:55 p.m. EDT 
The Obama campaign has been sending fundraising e-mails all day describing Paul Ryan as dishonest and touting Joe Biden's truth-telling--all while subtly lowering expectations for the debate. The latest one, sent under Joe Biden's own name, begins as follows:

LAUGHING ARROGANT AND OBNOXIOUS: Joe Biden Just Lost The 2012 VP Debate

Vice President Joe Biden just lost the debate to Paul Ryan by laughing the whole time.
What’s so funny, Joe?
Every single time a serious issue came up, Paul Ryan offered a serious, sober answer as Joe Biden laughed and smiled at him. He was obnoxious, condescending and insulting at every turn.
Libya? Hilarious!
Nuclear Iran? Comedy!
The economy and unemployment? Funny!
Paul Ryan offered nothing but serious answers. Joe Biden was under so much pressure to score points and discredit Ryan that he overreached and looked like an obnoxious buffoon.
Biden constantly interrupted Ryan, with help from the debate moderator who also interrupted Ryan numerous times. As usual, the Republican had to debate the Democratic opponent and the Democratic debate moderator.
Paul Ryan held his own and was a calm voice of reason. Joe Biden was in such a rush to discredit Ryan, he couldn’t even wait for Ryan to respond.
I guarantee you a video will surface tomorrow (probably on BuzzFeed) showing how many times Joe Biden laughed and scoffed at Paul Ryan about serious issues during the VP debate tonight.
It happened so many times I lost count.
Paul Ryan offered real solutions.
Joe Biden laughed.
That’s all you need to know about tonight’s VP debate.

Biden Grunts, Guffaws, Smirks and Bullies His Way Through VP Debate

Did Joe Biden bring in Al Gore as his debate coach? Did he review the tape from the Bush-Gore debate in 2000 and think obnoxious interruptions and smirks on questions of national security are the way to move voters? He sighed. He broke into Ryan's answers. He chortled. His actual answers were the least of his problems. His tone and demeanor were beneath the office he currently holds. 

 
Paul Ryan was fine. And, I mean that in the most literal use of the term. A snap CNN poll found that Ryan won the debate, 48-44. It wasn't the decisive mauling that Romney delivered to Obama, but it was enough to sustain Romney's momentum. At times, I wished Ryan had been more aggressive in defending his time to speak. Biden left some whoppers on the table that went unanswered.
That said, Ryan gave forceful, passionate answers to several questions and his closing was especially strong. He had a firm command of the situation in Libya, Syria and Afghanistan. Most voters only know him as a budget guy, so his command of these issues was probably a pleasant surprise. There was nothing in his performance that would suggest he wasn't up to the job of being Vice-President.
Biden though, was beneath his office.

Obama Campaign Blames Romney/Ryan For Libya 'Circus'

Today on CNN, Obama deputy campaign manager and serial liar Stephanie Cutter was shown a devastating montage of the administration’s mixed messages on the situation in Benghazi, Libya. She promptly said that the “only reason” that the murder of the US ambassador in Benghazi, Libya had become a political issue is “because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. It’s a big part of their stump speech. It’s reckless and irresponsible what they’re doing.”

Only after being forced by CNN reporter to admit that it’s a national security issue did Cutter do so. Then she began nodding as the reporter stated that the American public has a right to answers.

This is the absurdity of the Obama administration position on Libya. It was they who politicized the murder of our ambassador by (1) failing to provide adequate security for him in Libya, and (2) lying about the actual circumstances surrounding the murder, blaming it on a YouTube video even though it was a full-fledged terrorist attack.

As usual, the Obama team is focused only on casting blame elsewhere. That’s been the biggest problem with Barack Obama’s candidacy. And that irresponsibility has cost lives.

Obama campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” on Thursday to double down on her accusation that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are the only reason Americans care about the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the Benghazi embassy.
Cutter attempted to take on host Bret Baier in a nearly seven-minute interview on location in Danville, Ky., the site of tonight’s vice presidential debate.
In the appearance, Cutter stuck to her previous remarks and blamed the administration’s changing Libya narrative on the intelligence community.

Video: Cutter Stands by Libya Comments, Refuses to Resign

Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter said she would "absolutely not" resign over comments she made earlier today on CNN, asserting that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are the "entire reason" the 9/11 Benghazi massacre is a national political issue. She told Townhall she stands by her remarks and referred back to an official written statement before briskly walking away and refusing to answer further questions:



Cutter is here in Danville to spin Vice President Biden's debate performance later tonight. Prior to the debate, she was laughing and socializing with Washington Post reporters in the media center.

THE GREAT OBAMAPHONE SCANDAL: Another Fraudulent Program That "Is Completely Out of Control"

I gleaned some interesting news from this Fox News Baltimore report that appears relevant to our ongoing discussion of the debt, personal responsibility, and Joe Biden's mullet:

• Vans are driving around Baltimore offering free "Obamaphones", which you -- the beleaguered taxpayer -- are funding

• The phone program is, in the words of the report, "completely out of control, not just here in Baltimore, but all over the country"

• Baltimore resident Monique Crawford says that she has "30 phones, and all of them are [turned] on"

• She was able to get each one in "five, ten minutes."

• Private, prepaid cellphone companies are giving away phones to people in Baltimore and dozens of other cities... all paid for by you.

• In Baltimore, the number of Obamaphone subscribers has ballooned from 6,000 in 2008 to 231,000 in 2011

• Some residents just stand in line for phones, and then sell them to drug dealers

Buried in each of our monthly cellphone bills is line-item called a "universal access fee", which is helping to fund this insanity.

Isn't a giant, bloated, corrupt and unaccountable federal bureaucracy grand?

This administration needs to go.

ObamaPhones Profiting ObamaDonors

A wireless company profiting from the so-called “Obama phone” giveaway program is run by a prominent Democratic donor whose wife has raised more than $1.5 million for the president since 2007.
Last week a video of a President Barack Obama supporter in Ohio claiming to have received a free phone from the president—“[Obama] gave us a phone!”—went viral, prompting media outlets to investigate.
Since 1985 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has operated a program called Lifeline, originally designed to provide free landline phone service for low-income individuals. The government subsidizes telecommunications firms providing the service, and those firms also pass on costs to customers via the “Universal Service Charge” on their phone bills.
The program expanded to include cell phones in 2008. That change has rapidly increased the cost to the federal government—$1.6 billion in 2011, up from $772 million in 2008. The number of Lifeline beneficiaries rose from 7.1 million to 12.5 million during the same period; cell phones account for roughly half of that 12.5 million.
One of the major providers of the free cell phones—3.8 million subscribers as of late 2011—is Miami-based TracFone Wireless, a company whose president and CEO, Frederick “F.J.” Pollak, has donated at least $156,500 to Democratic candidates and committees this cycle, including at least $50,000 to the Obama campaign.
Pollak’s wife, Abigail, is a campaign bundler for Obama who has raised more than $632,000 for the president this cycle, and more than $1.5 million since 2007. She has personally contributed more than $200,000 to Democratic candidates and committees since 2008.

JACK WELCH DOUBLES DOWN: Yes, the Unemployment Rate is Bogus and Here's Why, Media-Schmucks

Actually, he didn't call them "media-schmucks", but I'm sure that was just an oversight on his part:

Even if the BLS had a perfect process, the context surrounding the 7.8% figure still bears serious skepticism. Consider the following:

In August, the labor-force participation rate in the U.S. dropped to 63.5%, the lowest since September 1981. By definition, fewer people in the workforce leads to better unemployment numbers. That's why the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1% in August from 8.3% in July.

Meanwhile, we're told in the BLS report that in the months of August and September, federal, state and local governments added 602,000 workers to their payrolls, the largest two-month increase in more than 20 years. And the BLS tells us that, overall, 873,000 workers were added in September, the largest one-month increase since 1983, during the booming Reagan recovery.

These three statistics—the labor-force participation rate, the growth in government workers, and overall job growth, all multidecade records achieved over the past two months—have to raise some eyebrows. There were no economists, liberal or conservative, predicting that unemployment in September would drop below 8%.

 Can't you just smell all of the jobs being created?

QUICK QUIZ: Are you cut out to be Secretary of State?

Which would you choose?
A. Security for the Libyan Ambassador
B. Chevy Volts for Berlin

If you answered B, you could replace Hillary Clinton!

In a May 3, 2012, email, the State Department denied a request by a group of Special Forces assigned to protect the U.S. embassy in Libya to continue their use of a DC- 3 airplane for security operations throughout the country.

The subject line of the email, on which slain Ambassador Chris Stevens was copied, read: “Termination of Tripoli DC-3 Support.”

Four days later, on May 7, the State Department authorized the U.S. embassy in Vienna to purchase a $108,000 electric vehicle charging station for the embassy motor pool’s new Chevrolet Volts.

Madness. Sheer madness.