Blowhard Biden Bombed

From Fred Barnes, at the Weekly Standard, "Biden Bombed" (via Memeorandum):

You don’t win a nationally televised debate by being rude and obnoxious.  You don’t win by interrupting your opponent time after time after time or by being a blowhard.  You don’t win with facial expressions, especially smirks or fake laughs, or by pretending to be utterly exasperated with what your opponent is saying.

That’s why Vice President Joe Biden didn’t win the one and only debate last night with his Republican rival, Mitt Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan.

In fact, though Ryan had several weak moments—one of them was on Syria—the only conceivable takeaway from the veep debate was Biden’s out of control conduct.  It will be long remembered—and not favorably.

There’s one person who should be delighted with Biden. That’s Al Gore. He had the honor of having delivered the most over the top and weird performance in a presidential campaign debate when he sighed and frowned and acted frustrated in his first debate with George W. Bush in 2000. Now Biden has taken that crown—or dunce cap—from Gore.      

The only good thing about Thursday night’s debate for the Obama campaign was that it involved Biden rather than Obama. As a result, it’s not likely to have any impact in the election and may not even affect the polls over the next few days.

Keep reading. Actually, the result will be to keep the Romney momentum alive, as I noted last night. But see also Robert Stacy McCain at the American Spectator, "Crazy Uncle Joe":

Vice President Joe Biden took Americans on a one-way trip to Malarkey-ville last night, with a weirdly aggressive debate performance in which, according to one count, he interrupted his Republican rival 86 times. Even many of those who generally approved of what Democrat spinners referred to as Biden's "happy warrior" act expressed concern that the vice president was, to quote CNN's Gloria Borger, "condescending at times" toward Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.

Make that "condescending at all times," and you may have a consensus that would include even the debate's liberal moderator, Martha Raddatz of ABC News. Biden's behavior resembled the hypomanic phase of bipolar disorder, as he grinned incongruously or faked laughter in reaction to Ryan's answers, rudely scoffed at the Republican's policy proposals as "bluster" and "loose talk," and bulldozed past whatever feeble attempts Raddatz made to halt his repeated filibusters.

Arrogant? Overbearing? Angry? If those are your ideal qualities in a vice president, Biden's your man...

More at Big Journalism, "Media Hits Biden: 'Stop Smirking!' 'Weird,' 'Jerk'" (at Memeorandum).