As in "a display of emotion that is out of harmony with reality or with the verbal or intellectual content that accompanies." It's all I could think of last night while watching VP Biden display rudeness, contempt, and yes, inappropriate mirth throughout his debate with Rep. Paul Ryan. The video below gives just a taste of his frequent broad, teeth-flashing grins and occasional body-shaking laughter as he reacted to Ryan making dead-serious points about the economy and our national security. A video that included every blinding, wildly out of place veneer-flash would be much, much longer.
Ha ha ha. That one about the dead-in-the-water economy gets me every time! And a nuclear Iran -- hilarious! By the way, his repeated line about Iran having "nothing to put it in" was pure nonsense. Biden was also 100% wrong in asserting that our embassies in Libya did not want more security. That line was jaw-dropping.
Later in the debate the man who is a heartbeat away from the presidency switched from dismissively giddy to bullying, and finally to whisperingly sincere and serious as he once again threw his Catholic faith under the bus in favor of legalized abortion.
Chris Wallace found Biden to be the most openly disrespectful, contemptuous presidential or vice presidential debater he's ever seen. But the liberal base adored Biden's air-sawing performance. Abe Greenwald nailed it with this tweet:
Progressives really think manic aggression equals a conclusive debate win. Weird.
They seem to gravitate toward bullies, and prefer emotion (however phony or canned) over reason.
See also John Hayward's Angry Joe and Martha vs That Nice Ryan Fellow from Accounting.
Since I'm far from objective when it comes to Joe Biden, I can't guess whether he did himself or the ticket real harm here. But women in particular, they say, were especially offended by his rude behavior and impressed by the contrasting Ryan, who didn't lose his cool in the face of open disrespect. One tweet from Salina Zito:
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Edited to add Mark Steyn's take: Laughing All the Way to the Bank Collapse
Watch the OC Register this afternoon for Mark's weekly column. I'll be otherwise engaged this weekend and may not have a chance to link it here.
Dem swing voter from Biden hometown "No mother in Scranton ever taught her son to behave that way and wipe that smrik off your face"This mom agrees. He acted like a jerk throughout. But that's just Biden being Biden.
— SalenaZito (@SalenaZitoTrib) October 12, 2012
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Edited to add Mark Steyn's take: Laughing All the Way to the Bank Collapse
Watch the OC Register this afternoon for Mark's weekly column. I'll be otherwise engaged this weekend and may not have a chance to link it here.
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Sneering, snarling hateful, braindead Biden.
ReplyDeleteThe snearing, snarling obamabots drinking the koolaide loved Butt-in. That's the liberal pose on radio, t.v., everywhere === shoutdown the conservative.
Ryan WON. CNN says Ryan WON.
Romney/Ryan 2012.
I think he did what he was tasked to do. The left base was demoralized after last week. They loved it. Indies aren't going to vote based on the VP anyway. I give him a slight win.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if, during debate practice, they got Ted Olson good and drunk to prepare Ryan for what lay ahead. Good grief!
ReplyDeleteI hope that Romney is preparing to deal with the hostile/partisan/interrupting moderators that are sure to show up at the remaining debates.
--Meem
It's clear that, in the remaining debates, the moderators -- not Obama -- will be Romney's strongest opponents and biggest obstacles.
ReplyDelete--Meem
Seems to be a pattern evolving with these debates; the Democrat candidate's behavior is showing disrespect towards the American people.
ReplyDelete'Bully with phony emotion': Obama summed up in 4 words.
ReplyDeleteI think Joe Biden is showing signs of dementia. Inappropriate affect, memory, aggressiveness, labile emotions. I suggest a check up with his doctor.
ReplyDeleteWhen Obama said in 2008 "That question's above my pay grade!" in response to an abortion question at a religious forum, I knew he'd been talking to Biden. (Wasn't surprised when he picked Biden for veep the next week.) Biden said that when he was sneering and bullying Scott Ritter during Senate testimony.
ReplyDeleteRitter was a State Dept. whistleblower talking about abuses and UN corruption under Saddam's Oil for Food program. Ritter later went very bad indeed, but at that time he was fighting the good fight, and Biden was there to belittle and destroy him for doing so.
It's not dementia, he's been poison mean for 20 years at least.
And he didn't win, Conservative Girl. He made his radical base cheer, but their cheering's always ugly, so he lost a bunch of leaners. Ryan looked likeable, not like a granny-killer, and he politely talked up Romney. OUR base wanted Ryan to punch back harder, but we don't need any bucking up just now.
I think we won.
As a person (an independent voter) who has dealt with thousands of emotionally-charged individuals, I found Biden's inappropriate affect (laughing, sneering, etc.) that was in contrast to the seriousness of topics to either demonstrate extreme nervousness or early signs of senility.
Delete