Split Decision; Mirth or Madness?

By William L. Garvin

“If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs and there is no quiet.”  Proverbs 29:9

By the time you read this, the second presidential debate will have already occurred.  As of this writing, political pundits are referring to it as “Round Two.”  That brings to mind the incredible boxing career of Muhammad Ali.  In 1974, Ali was to fight George Foreman in Zaire in what was marketed as the “Rumble in the Jungle.”  Because of Foreman’s incredible punching power, Ali was not favored to win.  When he “floated like a butterfly,” he was a little slower.  Even in his prime, his “stings like a bee” could not come close to matching the incredible power in Foreman’s sledgehammer fists.

However, in an inspired moment of ring strategy, Ali beat the odds.  He leaned back on the ropes, covered himself up while taunting his powerful foe.  Foreman began to furiously pound away at Ali.  Rather than weakening Ali, most of the power was absorbed by the ropes.  Foreman expended an incredible amount of energy and began to tire.  Ali came back to win the fight and the “rope-a-dope” strategy became part of boxing’s lexicon.

Maybe that was President Obama’s intended “strategerie” in the first debate.  He was certainly passive on the ropes and appeared to be defenseless.  Unfortunately for him, Governor Romney failed to tire.  He continually rained left hooks of Obama’s failed liberal policies to the body.  Joe Frazier would have been impressed!  He followed those up with right crosses to the jaw of conservative, free market economic policy.  The President was helpless, listless and pretty much gave up in a Roberto Duran “no mas” picture of defeat.  There is no escape from a record of failure when your plan for the future is merely “more of the same.”  The fight should have been stopped by TKO.

In the Vice-Presidential debate, the Administration could not afford a similar shellacking.  While the President had come out somnambulant, Joe Biden came out “juiced.”  Some say in more ways than one!  In any event, there has never been a more disconcerting performance in the history of modern presidential debates.  With very rare exception, Biden was described as rude, condescending, maniacal, unhinged, disturbing, self-indulgent, undisciplined, overbearing, boorish, un-presidential and mean spirited by his foes.  His allies could only come up with aggressive, spirited, and “it’s just Joe being Joe.”  The latter is probably true.  His arrogance (without basis) and pomposity is legendary.  He tries to disguise himself as an everyday blue collar kind of guy but he has never been one of “the common folk.”  He’s a lifelong politician with only a passing commitment to the truth.  It’s his failing throughout life.  He received an F in law school because of plagiarism and dropped out of the 1988 presidential race for multiple violations of the same nature.  Many of his statements can only be characterized as outright lies.

In the debate, those who count such things said good old Joe, the barroom bully, interrupted Paul Ryan 82 times in only ninety minutes.  His pugilistic style could only be described as “laugh-a-gaffe” or “smirk-a-jerk.”  Macho Camacho, the clown prince of boxing, would have been embarrassed.  Plus, Biden’s corner man was the referee/moderator.  The analytical aftermath was preoccupied with his outlandish behavior and very little attention was paid to his lack of substance.

Joe, who must be BFFs with “Bibi”, has said “he and Barack” are proud of raising a trillion dollars in new taxes.  He said their tax plan would only affect “millionaires and billionaires.”  Unfortunately, the President’s actual plan would affect individuals making $200,000 and up and couples making $250,000 and up.  But that was just Joe clowning around before the real bozo act began.

VP “no one messes with Joe” Biden asserted that neither he nor the President knew of requests for increased security in Benghazi.  Apparently they also didn’t know of the thirteen previous incidents or that it was 9/11.  He claimed the intelligence community attributed the death of the Ambassador and three other Americans on a movie trailer.  Maybe if the President hadn’t missed sixty percent of the intelligence briefings, these things would have been known.  Maybe if they had viewed the real time feed from the Benghazi consulate during the five-hour attack, they would have known.  Now their campaign says the only reason the four deaths are being discussed is because Romney and Ryan have politicized the issue.  Enough already!  When you have a clown in the ring, don’t be surprised when a circus breaks out!   

Let’s hope both presidential candidates addressed the important issues yesterday with appropriate seriousness.  We’ve had enough Jerry Springer performances.