The Junior Varsity takes the field...

The Vice Presidential candidates take the stage. Is it possible to take it away from them?

Tomorrow night Vice President Joe Biden and Vice Presidential Wannabe Paul Ryan get their turn at the nation.  Democrats are hoping to reverse their losses from last week's Presidential debate, while the Republicans are hoping to build on their decisive win. I think they might want to lower their expectations...I think each of them should be happy if these guys just don't screw up.

Both of these men have a habit of putting their feet in their mouths. (Not in each other's mouths...that would just be weird.) What this means is that both of them can be prone to saying something the other side can seize upon and use to their advantage in their press release the next day. This has got to be something that both sides are on the lookout for, and simultaneously something that both sides have to be dreading.

But if the potential exists for each man to embarrass themselves, it also exists for each man to get off that all-important one-line zinger that will be repeated for days in the national media. As will their faux pass. In other words, they stand an equal chance of embarrassing either themselves or each other. Maybe both.

Paul Ryan got off to a bad start in Flint the other day; he screwed up a question on gun rights (“I don’t even think President Obama’s proposing more gun laws”- he really said that) and made some disparaging comments about the poor (he said that they lacked "good discipline" and "good character"), and then stormed out of the interview (though perhaps "he was ushered out by his handlers" would be a better description). One commentator called it "hissy;" I would have called it "petulant." Either way, it didn't look good. He needs to look better if he expects to build on Romney's success, let alone improve upon it.

I keep hearing about how much better a debater Biden is than Obama (“Joe Biden is incredibly gifted when it comes to debating" said the Chairman of the Republican National Committee); for Obama's sake, he'd better be. An embarrassing show from the Democrats now might actually put the Republicans on top in a swing state or two.

I would say that I don't expect this debate to have much effect on the campaign except in the short term,  but it conceivably could. These are men who speak their minds passionately...the chance for one of them to screw up cannot be discounted.

The Blues Viking

The opinions here expressed are mine and if you don’t like them you can get your own damn blog.