On September 26, 1960 Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon participated in the first Presidential debate.  The New York Times declared that on “sound points of argument” Nixon took most of the honors.   They missed the point.  Kennedy won that debate and the results changed the course of that election and ultimately history.   The reason Kennedy won was because a picture is worth a 1000 words.  The words spoken in that debate are largely forgotten, but the image of a well-tanned and healthy Kennedy contrasted sharply with a pale and wobbly Nixon.  Nixon had just recovered from the flu and his makeup artist should have been fired on the spot.

The point is that the results of that debate weren’t obvious at first, but they were very significant.  I believe the same thing is true about last night’s debate.  Joe Biden and Paul Ryan were pretty equal in terms of the actual debate.  Biden actually did a remarkable job of trying to convince people that the Obama administration record is better than it looks.   Ryan did a great job on introducing himself to the American people and he more than held his own.  When the new guy can go toe to toe with the old pro, that is a big win for the new guy.  Everyone knows the old pro will just continue to get old, but the new guy will be a major player for a long time.   But the long term impact is likely to be devastating for both Biden and Obama.  That is because the image of this debate may linger longer than people expect and Joe Biden was just plain awful.  He acted like an immature 8^th grader caught on stage with an adult.  He constantly interrupted Ryan and spent much of the debate with this silly smirk on his face.  He frankly came across as an immature arrogant ass.

The moderator was obviously biased toward Biden.  That should be no surprise since Barack Obama attended her wedding and she apparently had dinner at Biden’s house earlier this year.  But ultimately, she hurt Biden by not reining him in.  She let Biden be Biden and that was awful for Biden.

Biden looked like he was off his meds.  That is why I have named this the grape debate.  One can only hope that Biden had a little too much to drink and that he is not really bi-polar.

Ultimately Biden was Biden and Ryan was Ryan and that is bad for Democrats.

TDM