Washington Post reporter Dan Zak saw a different vice presidential debate than nearly everyone else in the Old Media establishment. Zak watched the debate where Joe Biden was brilliant, Martha Raddatz was fair, and Paul Ryan was like “the perp-of-the-week” on an episode of TVs “Law and Order: SVU.” That is exactly what he said on Twitter as he watched the debates.
Zak must have thought he was brilliant with this Twitter observation: “35 min in, Biden is Det. Olivia Benson and Ryan is the perp-of-the-week. #SpecialVeepsUnit,” he tweeted.
If you aren’t familiar with the TV show, each week it features yet another sex criminal “perp” that has attacked a little child, raped a woman, or murdered someone. The show is one long cavalcade of sickos, weirdos, and creeps chased by cops who imagine they are above the law employing the sort of shoddy police work that would lead them to be either fired or put in prison themselves.
That wasn’t all Zak had to say about Ryan. He also characterized him as a child, Tweeting, “My #VPdebate review coming soon: ‘A man debated a boy Thursday night on national television, and both were ultimately schooled by a woman.'”
Zak’s full piece in the Post was also oddly dismissive of Ryan.
But Zak’s skewed interpretation of the VP debate does not measure up well against his Old Media colleagues whose Twitter streams revealed a different state of affairs.
For one thing, not many of Zak’s Old Media pals thought Biden was so wonderful, nor did they think he was acting like the adult in the room. In fact, just the opposite. Many members of the media were slamming Biden for being a smirking, laughing, arm waving, constantly interrupting jerk.
Here are just a few tweets by other members of the media:
- NBC News: David Gregory @davidgregory Biden’s smile is out of control. #NBCPolitics
- Buzzfeed: Ben Smith @BuzzFeedBen So did Biden practice laughing at Ryan???
- Townhall: Guy Benson @guypbenson Will Biden laugh his ass off at the terrible economy, too? #VPdebate
- WhiteHousePressCorps: @whpresscorps RT @kirstenpowers10: Biden laughing while Martha talks about Iran getting the bomb is just weird.
- Wash. Examiner: Philip Klein @philipaklein If Biden’s strategy was to come off like a complete jerk, he’s succeeding brilliantly.
- NBC News: Chuck Todd @chucktodd Biden is controlling the debate; but he’s interrupting a lot; fine line on controlling a debate and being overly aggressive;
As you can see, there were many voices criticizing Biden for his ignorant performance. The attack on Biden’s smirking, laughing, and arm waving was all over Twitter, not that Zak seemed to have noticed.
Worse, Biden appeared to have a particular goal in mind with his debatus interruptus style. Gregory nailed it saying on Twitter, “My colleague @chrisdonovannbc wonders whether Biden is firing up the base more than reaching undecideds tonight. #NBCPolitics”
With Biden having to make an attempt to fire up the base only weeks before the election, this would seem to auger badly for team Obama. One would think that by now the left-wing base would already be signed onto Obama’s reelection. But if Biden had to make a play straight to the hardcore left and ignore the moderates and undecideds, well that appears to be very bad news for how the reelection campaign is going.
As to those moderates and undecideds, CNN’s flash polls during and right after the debate showed that Ryan had a slight edge in nearly all categories. Twitchy also made note of that saying, “CNN voter dials not friendly to VP Biden https://bit.ly/Qgoksd.”
In other words, far from being “brilliant,” Biden’s effort did nothing to help move the ball in favor of Obama. And Zak seems to have been one of the very few that didn’t understand this fact.
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