Juan Pablo Rivera Garza
Blogs Editor
Vice presidential candidates serve as a supplement for the presidential candidates they run with. Usually, they are chosen for one of three reasons: to balance the ticket geographically, to boost partisan confidence in the presidential candidate, or to cover an area where the presidential candidate does not have enough expertise or experience in. The choices of the two vice-presidential candidates this election season, Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan, are no accident. Vice President Biden helped then-Senator Obama win the 2008 election by covering the relative inexperience of the young Illinois Senator (especially in terms of foreign policy) with a long career in the Senate, including five years as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He also has proved a great campaigner in blue-collar states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Iowa. On the other hand, Congressman Ryan has provided a great level of excitement among Conservative Republicans, a group that too often has felt distant from Governor Romney. His work as the Republican Budget point-man has helped to shape the election’s focus to issues like Medicare, the deficit, and the role of Government. Another detail of note is that this election marks the first time there are two Roman-Catholic vice presidential candidates. Even with their shared faiths, the two visions these respective gentlemen have for the country are wildly different than each other, setting up a very interesting debate.
There are four categories that each candidate is graded on: Substance, Attacks, Emotional Connection, and Personal Presentation. These four factors are great determiners to who will end up winning the sliver of undecided voters still left and help their running mates win the Presidency.
Substance:
As I mentioned beforehand, both vicepresidential candidates are immensely talented at their areas of expertise, Senator Biden in foreign policy and Congressman Ryan with the budget. Unlike the presidential debate last week, this debate focused on many specific issues (thanks to the fantastic moderator Martha Raddatz) including the crisis in Libya and the approaching fiscal cliff. Both candidates are wildly intelligent, but one stood out as the most subsantive, Congressman Ryan. His knowledge of policy was remarkable, but at times he came off as a little distant and wonky (more on that later), but overall, he did a fairly good job of backing his views with facts and statistics.
Winner: RYAN
Attacks:
There were a large amount of jabs by both of the candidates during the debate, to the point that it seemed that they have a high level of disdain for each other. Congressman Ryan highlighted the vice-president’s tendency to make embarassing gaffes, while Vice President Biden countered with stinging rebukes of Romney-Ryan policies, a Lloyd Bentsen-esque jab at the Congressman and a mention of the infamous 47% comments. Vice President Biden’s attacks, though at times excessive, proved necessary to stop the faltering Obama campaign (which has suffered ever since the first presidential debate).
Winner: BIDEN
Emotional Connection:
Emotional connection with voters (particularly undecideds) is vital for a campaign to succeed. This campaign is no different. One of the best skills that Joe Biden brings to the Obama campaign is his personableness and ability to connect with working-class people. He’s an extremely gifted politician in this sense, and in this debate he delivered the needed connection with undecided voters that the Obama campaign had been hoping for. His life story of growing up to a working-class family in Scranton, Pennsylvania and the tragedy he faced after his first wife and young daughter died in 1972, is extremely relatable and stirs compassion amongst voters. Congressman Ryan, on the other hand, failed to properly connect with voters during the debate, sounding awfully robotic and much too practiced.
Winner: BIDEN
Personal Presentation:
Both candidates were evenly matched in their personal presentation during the debate. Some have said that the Vice President’s incessant giggling and smirking throughout the debate made him seem unprofessional (and have compared it to the famous Gore sigh), but it was fairly unimportant, and served only as comedic fodder. Congressman Ryan, although coiffed, seemed too robotic, almost as if reading off a script.
Winner: TIED
Both candidates provided an extremely interesting debate, and both definitely energized their own parties. I doubt that many undecideds made up their mind because of the debate (historically most vice presidential debates are not considered as important as presidential ones), but Vice President Biden’s performance served to cover the President from the backlash that he received after the first debate. The real question now is how will President Obama do this Tuesday: will he build on the aggressive tone that Biden used against Congressman Ryan, or will he continue to be fairly docile against Governor Romney?
