Old America vs. New America: The Vice Presidential Debate

The Old America vs. a New One

In the vice presidential debate, politicians who have two visions of America clashed with each other — Vice President Joe Biden wants to repair it and Republican Paul Ryan wants to change it radically.

The vice presidential debates don’t usually matter in U.S. elections, but this time it was different.

After last week’s televised clash between Obama and Romney, in which the president was unexpectedly outclassed by the Republican candidate, there was a decrease in the polls. Obama lost his national lead and, what’s most important, also several key states that will determine the election results such as Florida, Ohio and Virginia. In some of them he led by approximately 10 percent before the debate. Now he has been caught up to or even surpassed by Mitt Romney.

If on Thursday night (Polish time) Joe Biden was also given a thrashing during the debate, the result of the voting on Nov. 6 could be sealed. And at the same time, it was obvious that even Biden’s most spectacular victory over the young 42-year-old congressman Paul Ryan wouldn’t repair what Obama had spoiled by his disastrous, anemic performance a week ago. It may possibly be repaired by Obama himself in the next two debates with Romney.

To Repair or to Build Anew?

The vice presidential debate also had a symbolic dimension that exceeded short-term politics. It was a characteristic clash of two political visions and two great ideas.

70-year-old Biden is a typical son and defender of the “old” America, which was created by two great Democratic reformers — Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson. It is a country that guarantees social security to senior citizens, the poor and the sick thanks to social programs: Social Security (state pensions), Medicare (free medical treatment for seniors) and Medicaid (free medical treatment for the poor). This America is in a deep crisis half of a century after Johnson’s reforms. It was, among other things, because of the social programs and aging population that the public debt was forced up to an astronomical $16 trillion — it’s more than the annual national income of the U.S. — and the federal government in Washington adds another trillion to it every year.

Vice President Biden, who was born to a family of modest means in Pennsylvania — his father was a used car salesman and he sometimes barely made ends meet — started his adult life during Johnson’s term. He believes that this social America can be and should be saved. It’s enough to introduce some amendments to the system.

Congressman Paul Ryan, who is 28 years younger and grew up during Ronald Reagan’s term, believes that repairing it is not enough — America should be completely changed and newly defined, otherwise a catastrophe threatens it. In the “new” America, government must be drastically reduced, a lot of departments in Washington must be removed and social programs must be radically changed. If not, the state will simply go bankrupt.

When Romney proposed him as the vice presidential candidate in the summer, Ryan kind of mellowed, mainly for tactical reasons — one can’t win an election promising reductions of pensions and subsidies to treat the poor. But the young congressman, who is the head of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, formulated his bold, radical demands so often in recent years that he became a hero and the most prominent figure in the circle of radical conservatives.

Open Boxing without Stalling

Both candidates for vice president also have completely different characters. Biden is emotional and has a biting tongue. Ryan is the chill and methodical type. He’s sometimes called a politician from the PowerPoint generation (PowerPoint is a program that creates presentations and slides) because of his knowledge of statistics and matter-of-fact, stoic way of arguing.

Everything mentioned above indicated that the Thursday clash would be very interesting. And it actually was — the viewers saw the show as much more lively and captivating than the Obama-Romney clash, which was interesting mostly because of Obama’s bland and passive performance.

Biden took part in the debate with the awareness that he couldn’t gain a lot but that he could lose everything. He didn’t want to repeat Obama’s mistakes and that’s why in the first minutes of the debate he went for his rival like a boxer who wants to knock out an opponent. Ryan, who debuted in the debates in front of an audience of several dozen million, was forced to be on the defensive but every now and then he snapped back with an apt answer. And such an exchange of fire lasted for a good hour and a half.

They started with Libya where U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans died in the attack on the consulate in Benghazi a month ago. Ryan accused the Obama administration of insufficient security, even though consulate employees sent requests to Washington for reinforcements. Biden retorted that Ryan and the Republicans voted in Congress for the reduction of $300 million from the security fund for American diplomatic posts all over the world.

Then Ryan kept reminding everyone of the increase of the public debt from $10 trillion to $16 trillion under Obama. Biden retorted that Ryan, playing the saint now, during George W. Bush’s term voted for two wars financed by loans and reductions of taxes for the wealthiest, which cost almost $1 trillion and $300 billion in subsidies for medicine.

Biden, as opposed to Obama a week ago, several times referred to Romney’s calamitous statement from a private meeting with donors in Florida. The Republican candidate said: “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing. … I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” Somebody secretly videotaped the speech.

“I think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don’t come out of your mouth the right way,” Ryan answered back. It alluded to Biden’s tendency to commit blunders himself.

“But I always say what I mean. And so does Romney,” the vice president answered.

Did Biden Exaggerate Aggression?

This time he didn’t commit any blunders, at least not verbally, yet he’s accused of derisive laughter and making theatrical faces while Ryan was talking. He patronizingly called him “my friend” and accused him in slang of malarkey.

However, Democrats were delighted. Biden distinctively showed a contrast between them and the Republicans in terms of taxes. “Just let the taxes expire like they’re supposed to on those millionaires. We don’t — we can’t afford $800 billion going to people making a minimum of $1 million. They do not need it, Martha. Those 120,000 families make $8 million a year. Middle-class people need the help.”

Commentators agreed that Biden dominated the debate — both positively and negatively. He was more expressive and aggressive, unceremoniously interrupted Ryan in mid-flow; at times it seemed that he didn’t respect his opponent. And this probably determined who won. In a CNN poll, 48 percent of those polled said that it was Ryan who won — he remained calm and tried to bring Biden around in a matter-of-fact way. Forty-four percent decided that it was Biden who prevailed. In a CBS poll, 50 percent recognized Biden as the winner and 31 percent, Ryan.

It was significant that the polls were a surprise for both campaigns. Biden’s fans conclusively acknowledged his victory while Ryan’s fans thought that their candidate indisputably won. That’s why the debate should be declared a tie.

The result won’t be determined until two more debates between Obama and Romney. The first one is as early as next Tuesday evening.