Rock’em Sock’em Joe Biden

By Cole

FINALLY, a Democrat had the courage to stop a Republican in mid-lie and distortion — 82 times in 90 minutes, the pundits counted.

Joe Biden’s VP debate with Paul Ryan was everything the first Obama-Romney debate was not. Biden actually laughed at Ryan’s persistent attempts to con American voters into buying the notion of a conservative middle-class low-tax Utopia that neither Ryan nor Romney themselves believe in.

Sure, today the opposition is crawling all over Biden for saying the White House was unaware that our embassy in Libya had asked for more security before it was attacked by terrorists on September 11.

Republicans, with their selective memory, like to think Democrats have a lock on massive intelligence failures.

At least when Obama doesn’t get the message, he doesn’t declare war on a different country, like dear old George W. Bush did after ignoring repeated warnings that Osama bin Laden was planning to attack us. Bush’s response was to fixate on Saddam Hussein and destroy Iraq, which had nothing to do with it.

To steal a choice phrase from Virginia’s former Republican governor, George Allen, Joe Biden came as close to shoving most of Paul Ryan’s misconceptions back “down his whiny throat” as anybody’s ever likely to get.

And it felt good. Real good.

To Ryan’s credit, he never backed down. Like a well-trained pit bull, he kept spouting the party’s worn-out lies and fact-free promises like he believes them. And he probably does.

Let’s hope Obama can maintain the momentum on October 16 in his foreign policy debate with Romney. It’s got potential as an easy slam-dunk, since Romney has already gone out of his way to piss off China (“cheaters”) and Russia (“our No. 1 geopolitical foe”), and talks like he’s itching for war with Iran and Syria.

Top al-Qaida Leaders Killed — Again

By Yul

How many times do the “2 top al-Qaida leaders” have to get killed before they stay dead?

When are people going to realize that al-Qaida regenerates like a gecko’s tail? It grows new heads every time you cut one off.

And what happened to that Bush-era deck of cards with pictures of the top 52 bad guys? Did they all ever get captured or killed or, like Osama bin Laden, were the ones who got away quietly swept under the rug in hopes everybody would forget about them?

I must confess that I have such a hard time keeping the names straight, and the equally difficult nicknames they all seem to have, I can’t keep track.

Oh, great. While writing this, I just discovered another leader bit the dust.

Joe Biden called all this a “devastating blow” to al-Qaida. Yeah right, Joe. Until next Tuesday, when they have the new management team in place.

Now that we’ve supposedly got al-Qaida “on the run” and the Iraqi army is getting so adept at killing — after many years of being the only ones over there who weren’t — why should Obama wait until August to withdraw our troops? Let’s bring our soldiers home now and let the Iraqis have at it while they’re on a roll.

Debater Palin Mostly Flash, Little Substance

By Adele

Sarah Palin managed not to trip on her way to the podium or pee in her pumps at hard questions she couldn’t answer, so some are declaring her the “winner” of her debate with Joe Biden.

The more mature, well-versed, and politically experienced Biden bent over backward to be cordial and non-confrontational to a newbie. She seized his civility as a chance to bombard him with tired old Republican accusations and insubstantial platitudes.

In fact, Palin even tried to make the event her own little tête-a-tête with viewers – often shutting out Biden and moderator Gwen Ifill to directly address the camera with plenty of winking and smirking.

When Palin found Ifill’s questions pesky, she ignored them to deliver the answers she’d been coached on. This resulted in lots of repetition peppered with “you betchas” and “doggone its” so even stupid people could follow her.

She only dropped one bomb, saying it would be dandy to have even more power as VP than Dick Cheney – the most evil, Machiavellian figure ever to darken the White House.

Once again, Palin showed us she’s great if someone puts words in her mouth. She just has problems when she has to think for herself with ruthless media barracudas like Katie Couric.

I may have soured on Hillary Clinton, but Hillary could always back up every statement with more facts than anybody wanted to hear, leaving no doubt of her firm grasp on the issues.

Palin seems to think this election is another beauty pageant she can win by being cute and poised and showing some leg. She’s so naive, she doesn’t even know how much she doesn’t know – and she doesn’t care. As she told Katie, she only reads if someone puts words in front of her, but can’t name a single publication.

Yet she thinks we should trust her with unbridled power.

After enduring Palin’s act, Biden deserves congratulations for showing super-human restraint against a disrespectful, flippant opponent who essentially wasted 90 minutes of his time.