Photo Credit: House Budget Committee
By Rick Manning — An earnest Paul Ryan faced a smirking Joe Biden, who Team Obama apparently instructed to engage in rude interventions and weird expressions to show displeasure or disagreement.
Like a teen girl who cannot resist rolling her eyes before giving you the W and an exasperated Whatever, Biden’s over the top expressiveness detracted from any credibility he had as a man with more than 30 years foreign policy experience.
It was like watching a strange role reversal with the younger Ryan being the even keeled adult with the 69-year-old Biden coming across as the undisciplined off-centered person with whom you would be slightly concerned to leave your children.
In terms of the debate content itself, Ryan demonstrated a command of foreign policy to compliment his overwhelming understanding of the economic challenges confronting our nation, making Biden look foolish in his defense of the politically motivated withdrawal of our troops during the Afghan fighting season.
While Biden and the moderator tried to play to the Obama theme that the Republicans had not offered specifics on their tax plan, the odd truth that came through is the contrast that Obama has no plan to move our nation forward.
The strangeness that it was the challengers who were pressed for more details rather than the incumbent Biden being forced to lay out a vision about what Obama would do differently was overwhelming. Not once did the Vice President offer any hope that re-election would create a better result than Obama’s new normal that is drowning the middle class in despair.
On both the issues of saving Medicare and the budget deficit, it was only the challenger Ryan who had a detailed, concrete solution. Biden, by comparison, offered no hope for the future, only class warfare platitudes, and the promise of another four years of the same leaderless meandering.
The choice facing America could not have been clearer – acceptance of a continuing decline of our standard of living and the expectation that our children will have a better life, or committing to fighting for a renewed American future knowing that the journey will be tough. A future led by determined, earnest and honest leaders who put their country first.
A common definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Romney-Ryan offers a detailed plan to move the country forward not running from the hard problems that Americans expect their leaders to confront.
Obama-Biden offers no solutions relying on the same ole blame game. Last night, it was the “intelligence community” that was to blame for Obama going to the United Nations a week after a terrorist attack on our embassy in Libya that cost our ambassador and three others their lives, and falsely claiming that a poorly done video was at fault.
Like that petulant child, it is always someone else’s fault when their plans go awry.
Like the dreamer who can come up with the big idea but have no idea how to make it happen, Obama-Biden can only fall back on complaining about the circumstances that conspired against their success.
After four years, it is time for America to hire adults to run the country and stop enabling those whose failed dreams are bringing the nation to financial ruin.
Earnest and honest or smirking blame, the choice has never been so clear.
Rick Manning is the communications director of Americans for Limited Government.
