Hey, Joe
Note: I am almost completely positive I read the "Kitty Laser Debate Tactic" line here on DU, but I can't for the life of me find it. If anyone knows who said it, or where they said it, please post the thread link below so I can hyperlink to it in the article and give credit where credit is most definitely due. Thanks! - wrp
Hey, Joe
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed
Thursday 11 October 2012
(snip)
The real losers and failures last Wednesday were the denizens of the "news" media, and because of them, the American people at large lost big as well. In the week after that debate, the entire "news" media infrastructure unplugged its collective intelligence, sent the fact-checkers off on an extended lunch break, and extolled the virtues of Mr. Romney's "strong" performance without bothering to mention the degree to which he had lied, reversed himself and completely mischaracterized virtually every aspect of his campaign to date. One online wag surmised that Romney knew he was dealing with an utterly incompetent political media, and so deployed the "Kitty Laser Debate Tactic." Know how you can send a cat sprinting and gyrating around the room by flashing a laser pointer around? That's what Romney did with his "facts," and the media kitties went wild chasing after his little red dot, never once pausing to say, "Hey, wait, that isn't real."
Natch.
So here we are a week later, ensconced in a political world where facts don't stand a chance against a barrage of falsehoods, brazen liars are called "bold," and an entire election can swing wildly within a short span of days because the "news" media needs a close race to make money, and be damned to doing their jobs. It does not have to stay this way; Mr. Obama has pretty clearly seen the writing on the wall (in 50-foot tall Day-Glo letters) that he has to step up his game, that the media isn't going to help him, and that time is very demonstrably running out. The current dire poll numbers don't reflect last Friday's positive jobs report, so there may well be some movement away from the cratering phenomenon we witnessed this week.
And so much for all that.
For the moment, all eyes are focused on tonight's vice presidential debate in Kentucky. Joe Biden and Paul Ryan will engage each other in what has suddenly become the most important VP debate in modern political history. Unlike Mr. Obama, Joe Biden is not what anyone would call the quiet, retiring type, and if Mr. Ryan decides to go into full-lie mode, Mr. Biden might actually throw the podium at him. To be sure, Biden will be the aggressor tonight, but it would be foolish for anyone to underestimate his opponent. Paul Ryan is the lean and hungry type, and unlike his running mate (who looks like an egg-sucking dog every time he drops a whopper), Ryan can and does lie without so much as a muscle twitch to betray him.
They will debate Medicare, and Medicaid, and tax policy, and the details of the sulfurously disliked "Ryan Budget Plan." If Biden is firing on all cylinders, Romney's "47 Percent" beliefs, the GOP's all-out national assault on the rights of women, and the GOP's generally wretched record over the last decade will be brought into play. Romney will not be there, of course, but Biden will have a golden opportunity to begin the process of pinning Romney's dazzling array of lies and reversals on Ryan, and dare Ryan to justify or explain them. Joe Biden is a grizzly bear in human skin, and all the qualities that lead pundits to call him "gaffe-prone" are the same ones that could very well serve to blast Paul Ryan right out of the auditorium. Or not. Tonight will tell the tale one way or the other.
The president dropped the ball, the "news" media kicked it into the gutter, and now the eyes of the entire political universe are fixed on the Vice President. If Joe Biden can park it deep tonight, the Obama campaign can correctly claim to have gone a fair ways toward righting their listing ship. If not - if Joe blows it, if Ryan outduels him, and if the media once again decides to laud flash over substance - the time between now and election day will become very short indeed for the president to find a way to keep his job.
Three Tuesdays, plus five days, and counting.
The rest:
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12047-hey-joe-the-debate-faceoff-between-biden-and-ryan
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