Joe Biden, I Thank You

     As I stated in "The First Step," I am a political science major and I am attempting to become more politically motivated. In order to be a better political science major and citizen, I chose to watch the presidential and vice presidential debates. My expectation entering the presidential debate was to have a clearer idea of what each candidate thought is the current state of our nation and their plans for our future. Simply, I wanted to know where candidate stood on today's issues. That is not what I got. Instead of being inspired or even informed, I was bored. The debate was filled with a yelling Romney, a submissive Obama and numbers being thrown around that meant nothing to my untrained ears. In essence, I felt just as disengaged as Olivia Reed expressed in her post, "You Only Care about One Thing??!!!". Fortunately, this post does not end with the presidential debate.
     Despite the horrors of the presidential debate, I decided to keep hope alive: I watched the vice presidential debate. This time, I went in with much lower expectations- I expected a repeat of the presidential debate. I  was pleasantly surprised. The vice presidential debate was exciting and fun to watch. After the vice presidential debate, I had to ask myself: Why did I enjoy the vice presidential debate so much more than I enjoyed the presidential debate? The vice presidential debate did not provide me with more information, nor did it assist me in making a choice as to who I should vote for. However, the vice presidential debate did make me interested. I cared about was curious to see what was going to be said. Assuming I went into both debates with a fair amount of cynicism, nothing about my viewership changed. So what was so different about the two debates? I finally came to the conclusion that there was only one difference between the two debates for me: Joe Biden.

     Joe Biden was snappy, quick-witted and thoroughly prepared. I found that, even while Paul Ryan was speaking, I was watching Biden to see his next expression. While Romney and Obama only seemed to be throwing around facts and disagreeing with each other, Biden and Ryan were having a great time. There were quite a few jokes being thrown around at each other's expense. Each man was able to make his point while also taking a cheap shot or two at his opponent. While Ryan was indeed a part of this banter, he was much slower to enter this arena of the debate.
     Why did Biden feel like he had so much freedom to joke and laugh and roll his eyes while all we got from Obama was the occasional head shake? I believe that Biden is simply more secure in his political career. Biden knew that his debate was not going to win or lose the presidential election BUT his debate could help the President's current standing in the race. Joe Biden is also significantly older than any of other three participants in this presidential race. It is possible that Biden simply has an older debate style. Whatever the reason for Biden's spontaneity during the debate, I am grateful. Biden did a wonderful job of engaging voters of all stages and ages. If the man was able to inspire a blog post, he may have the potential to inspire a few voters.

Just for fun: Some funny tweets about the debate.