Smokin' Joe Delights Democrats and Shows Up the Boss

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Toward the end, when his opponent's adrenaline rush seemed to ebb a little, Ryan scored some more points.  In a closing statement that was clearly better than Biden's, Ryan succinctly laid out the Republicans' central message: "This is not what a real recovery looks like.  You deserve better. Mitt Romney and I want to earn your support."

Afterward, the pundits—Democrat and Republican—were virtually unanimous that Ryan had given a good account of himself. But he came in an honorable third. The silver medal went to Martha Raddatz, of ABC News, who asked pointed questions all night, and generally did a good job of keeping the two men on track. Some Republicans, Karl Rove included, were complaining about her failure to stop Biden from interrupting Ryan. That was just a sign that they thought their man was struggling. Whichever side loses usually blames the moderator.

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(John Cassidy, The New Yorker, October 12.)

One response to Ryan on "this is not what a real recovery looks like" might be (not the right words surely) "We haven't hit full stride yet but under this Administration we are adding jobs and moving in the right direction.  Under the Bush Administration we had 8 years with zero net new jobs--and you and Governor Romney are peddling that same old, same old trickle down that continues to crush the middle class and destroy jobs."  

Two actors which have been, if not entirely missing in action, then not emphasized in the presidential race are a) George Bush, an almost unbelievably unpopular president whose deficit-exploding, no new jobs economic philosophy was identical to R&R, and b) the critical importance of electing a constructive Congress if the voters actually want the branches of government to work more and better together to solve problems, it being impossible to do that when one branch is openly dedicated to bringing about the destruction of the other, the country be damned.