A Fine Performance by Biden

Biden went out there to 1) rally the base, 2) reintroduce the idea that there is something core-comical about the Romney candidacy.

High marks on both.

The base will surely be pleased.

And Ryan was definitely rattled, belittled and generally kicked around the block.

The only potential downside is the danger of sympathy for Ryan because he really does look about twelve years old, his voice cracks and his eyes make a basset hound look like Clint Eastwood. My view is that Biden sometimes went a bit too far... not too far for the base, of course, but too far for others. The derision was sometimes forced and overly broad for the HD TV age. It did not exude the right level of confidence and wry amusement.

Oddly, what snapped Biden out of it and made the second half even stronger than the first was getting mad at the moderator.

The strategy was to laugh at Ryan as a piece of fluff, which meant he had to be too insignificant to bother getting mad at. But there is a dark moral dimension to everything Ryan stands for... one should be mad to some degree. After Biden got riled with the moderator over some military issues there was some flinty anger in the air and his subsequent performance was more nuanced and (to my eyes) effective.

A clear win for Biden, of course. The question is how big a win. Had Biden been a little less manic, and a little less "inside baseball" I'd put it right up alongside the 1988 Dan Quayle beat-down.

I'll say 8 out of ten. Maybe even 8.5.

The moderator made it a good show, but got way too far into some foreign policy issues she had strong opinions about. And then she asked a truly offensive abortion question, couching the issue in religious terms. First Amendment... hello?! The presumption that a candidates view on abortion is driven somehow by being Catholic is anti-American. The question is whether it affects, not how it affects.