“But what’s unquestionably true is that Biden succeeded tonight. He had a simple job: Stop the bleeding. Buck up the troops. Make all those Democrats out there who’ve been fighting for the Obama campaign feel that the Obama campaign is also fighting for them. And so Biden came out tonight and picked a fight. He did everything Democrats wished Obama has done a week ago. He called out Ryan’s “malarkey” early and forcefully. He returned again and again to the 47 percent comments. He fought for core Democratic issues like protecting Medicare and Social Security. The post-debate spin told the tale. The Romney campaign argued Biden was too aggressive, too bullying, too mean. The Obama campaign argued that Biden had destroyed Ryan. Judging from my Twitter feed, most Democrats agreed. They saw the fight in Biden that they’d wanted to see in Obama. They felt the Obama campaign had learned from last week and changed their strategy. That was Biden’s job tonight, and he did it.”

Biden did his job (via apsies)

I’d almost argue that no, Biden did not have a simple job.  I believe he was a litmus: find out how far the country wants POTUS to go in the next debate.  

Romney wiped the floor with Obama in the first debate: and, I wonder now, if POTUS was, in addition to having his mind elsewhere, was keeping the “kid gloves on”, because he thinks the American people don’t want to see too much fighting between the parties.  What the American people say and what they actually mean are two very different things.  Frankly, I miss the days of talking about the “lipstick on a pig…”

The thing is, I don’t think the Obama campaign gets it on this level: I think the American people are not stupid.  I think the American people know exactly what’s been going on the past two years.  I think the lackluster response to the campaign, to some degree, has been this fear that Obama hasn’t been strong enough against the Republicans and the Tea Party.  I think the American people know what’s holding back progress in this country, and we’re tired of being held hostage. 

Even more than that, I believe Biden was a test - to see how far POTUS can go in the town hall… In this case, the Obama campaign won, because they now know what will work for the next two debates. 

The Romney-Ryan campaign is licking its wounds.  I hope they don’t discover that their whole “bipartisanship” argument - the biggest malarkey comment of the night, IMHO, is the biggest lie that Independent voters will see and see through. 

Independents are the key here and they know who has obstructed Congress and they know what bills have been moved with lightning precision through the House and Senate and in State Legislatures and what bills haven’t.  These are not dumb voters… they just need to know that POTUS and his administration will kick some ass, if they have to, because we’re pretty sure they’re going to have to, and this country needs them to. 

(via apsies)

“Under the tutelage of David Axelrod, the president’s chief strategist who is personally overseeing the preparations, Mr. Biden will be counseled on how to avoid Mr. Obama’s mistakes and even correct them with a more aggressive prosecution of the Republican ticket. Mr. Axelrod’s involvement highlights the stakes the Obama campaign places on the debate, and Mr. Biden has been reading “Young Guns,” the book co-written by Mr. Ryan, and practicing attack lines that Mr. Obama avoided.”

With Biden Up Next to Debate, Obama’s Aides Plot Comeback - NYTimes.com (via apsies)

I am so excited for the VP debate… 

(via apsies)

“It’s not deficit reduction when you increase military spending so that you can make up for that by cutting Medicare and Medicaid. That’s not budget reduction. That’s ideology. That’s the right wing…The other great scam for Ryan is to say, ‘Oh, I’m not going to help the rich people…I’m going to lower their rates and get rid of loopholes,’ although he doesn’t mention a single loophole that he’ll get rid of…I agree with [Paul] Krugman’s analysis. There is this instinct to be in the middle. People don’t like to think of themselves as some way partisan. There are people who take comfort from the fact that, ‘Oh, I’ve got people on both sides who disagree with me.’ I think you see this in Tom Friedman. You see this in some others…Here’s the deal…They don’t want to consider themselves to be siding with the Democrats. It’s important for their self-image that they be seen as centrist. The problem is the Republican Party has given them fewer and fewer things that they can identify with, because they’ve moved so far to the right… So they have to find something they can support on the Republican side to maintain this self-image that they’re somehow independent of the parties. And so they pick up the Ryan budget.”

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) unleashed a stinging attack on House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan in an interview with TPM’s own Sahil Kapur. (via pieceinthepuzzlehumanity)

God, I love Barney.  

(Source: tpmmedia, via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)

“We’ve gotten sort of used to this verbal tantrums from the President. To me it’s a little more petulance than presidential… I think it’s because we’re actually offering solutions to a debt crisis where he isn’t. So, I think we, our existence and our solutions point out the fact that he hasn’t offered any solutions to these problems and we want to confront a debt crisis before everybody gets hurt, before we have a crisis on our hands. And I think because we’ve offered these principal solutions and he has not he’s trying to use this sort of rhetoric to distort away from his failed record.”

Paul Ryan on why he’s become the target of President Obama’s attacks on the Republican budget plan. It obviously has nothing to do with the fact that he created it. Please tell me more about how the President throws tantrums and the Republicans offer real solutions.

(via kileyrae)

(via apsies)