I’ll be interested to see what kind of performance Joe Biden produces tonight in the Democratic presidential debate. It’s difficult to predict how Biden will fare because his past performances run the gamut.
His first outing was in 1988, before he was exposed as a plagiarist and had to withdraw from the race. It was real “deer in the headlights” stuff. I still recall him fidgeting with the pencil in his hand. Biden wasn’t ready for prime time. Indeed, he wasn’t ready, full stop.
Biden returned to the stage in 2007-08, first in Democratic presidential debates and later, as the vice presidential nominee, in his encounter with Sarah (“Okay if I call you Joe?”) Palin. As I recall, his performances were okay. He had advanced from in over his head to mediocre.
Then came his performance in 2012 his debate with Paul Ryan. The Joe Biden on show that night was the opposite of the 1988 version. Biden was hyper-aggressive, constantly interrupting Ryan and even laughing at his answers.
Even Donald Trump never behaved as obnoxiously during a debate as Biden did that night.
Apparently, the electorate was okay with Biden’s performance. Interestingly, however, when Tim Kaine tried to pull of the same kind of thing against Mike Pence in 2016, the electorate didn’t take kindly to it. The difference, I suspect, is that, debates aside, America simply liked Obama-Biden better than it liked Clinton-Kaine.
Where on the spectrum of Biden debate performances will tonight’s fall? He’s not going to be a deer in the headlights. Nor, I’m pretty sure, will he be as unlikable as he was with Ryan.
I expect Biden, in the main, to conduct himself cautiously, kind of like he did when he debated Palin. But Biden is 11 years older now and less able, I think, to control himself. Plus, his personality is now his calling card, at least in his mind.
Thus, I expect Biden to flash it from time to time, rather than going into a purely defensive crouch. It’s the prospect of those flashes, I think, that creates the suspense surrounding tonight’s debate.
That, and the degree to which Biden will resist the hard leftism that has infected his party.
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