Curmudgeonly Cartoons: The People’s Eyebrow

Harmonica Boy Gets A Spanking

The rough-and-tumble of polarized politics was on full display last night during the Vice Presidential Debate.

Both major parties are more cemented in their ideologies than they were a generation ago and there are few signs of partisan swords being turned into plowshares.  Given the divide, I found it remarkable that MSNBC’s Chris Matthews declared Gov. Mike Pence the winner of last night’s debate.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews declares Mike Pence the "winner" https://t.co/cf2VVVApoE #VPDebate pic.twitter.com/TSeGSTtvVx

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 5, 2016

Even CNN’s flash poll declared Pence the winner:

JUST IN: CNN flash poll declares Mike Pence the #VPDebate winner https://t.co/vL2hR7qomG pic.twitter.com/RDck4rbHG3

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 5, 2016

The Business Insider noted Sally Kohn, another liberal CNN commentator, tweeted there "is no question that, for viewers, Pence won this debate.”

Chris Cillizza deigned Kaine a loser in The Washington Post:

“Someone must have told the Virginia senator he needed to always be on his front foot in the debate, always be the aggressor.  It didn't work. Kaine started the debate talking so quickly and trying to load so many Trump attacks into every answer that it made it virtually impossible to grasp any one attack.  In the middle of the debate, Kaine seemed to relax into it—delivering an effective attack on Trump's comments on women. But that Kaine was the exception, not the rule. When he wasn't trying to stuff 10 pounds of attack in a five-pound bag in his answers, he was relentlessly interrupting Pence.  Every single time. [emphasis mine] Pence started to level an attack against Hillary Clinton, Kaine immediately began to talk over him.  I'm not sure if that was on purpose or not, but it didn't come across well—at all. One glaring example:  As Pence was recounting his personal experience on Sept. 11, 2001, Kaine interrupted to say, ‘I was in Virginia.’ Um, okay. Not a good look.”

Elaine Quijano, last night’s moderator chided, “Gentlemen, the people at home cannot understand either one of you when you speak over each other.”

CBS News went back through each section of the debate and counted every time a candidate interrupted his opponent during his two minutes to respond to a question. Here are the results:

Part 1 (Opening statements): 0 Kaine, 0 Pence

Part 2 (Trustworthiness): 6 Kaine, 4 Pence

Part 3 (National debt and Trump’s taxes): 7 Kaine, 5 Pence

Part 4 (Social Security): 2 Kaine, 0 Pence

Part 5 (Law enforcement): 4 Kaine, 2 Pence

Part 6 (Immigration): 5 Kaine, 2 Pence

Part 7 (Terrorism): 9 Kaine, 6 Pence

Part 8 (Syria): 3 Kaine, 4 Pence

Part 9 (Russia): 12 Kaine, 10 Pence

Part 10 (North Korea): 5 Kaine, 1 Pence

Part 11 (Abortion, social issues): 7 Kaine, 3 Pence

Part 12 (Closing statements): 0 Kaine, 0 Pence

Total: 60 Kaine, 37 Pence

Granny Clinton waited to congratulate her running mate until around 11:45 AM Wednesday according to her traveling press secretary Nick Merrill.  I suspect she was elated he didn’t perform a rendition of “Wagon Wheel” on his harmonica.  From the look on Granny’s face she ain’t happy with him one little bit.

"I look forward to working with you when you go back to the Senate." --Pence to Kaine

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) October 5, 2016

Right Jabs For October 13, 2012

Politics is not a playground, it’s a battlefield.  Here are a few links from conservative bloggers who are waging a war of words against the misanthropy, priggishness, prejudice, luddism, illiberalism and irrationalism of the mainstream media bobble-head dolls and groupthink poodles of the press corps.

JFK's 1962 tax policy is much closer to what Romney wants than what Obama wants, fifty years later.

The outcome of this debate is that Biden just gave Benghazi-gate more legs.

 “I’ll do all I can to help you. And you can quote me on that.”

…as soon as we read Mr. Al-Mulhim’s article, we understood that this honest and courageous man has painted a huge “Kill Me” sign on his back.

And with each battle, freedom has been lost as a new layer of privilege and the regulations that protect that privilege have been added. We have long ago lost the presumption of innocence, now everyone is guilty of something and the power to wield that guilt like a whip is the ultimate privilege.

[T]his story isn’t going away. And part of the story consists of what many believe is a coverup. Biden’s statements during the debate can be viewed as a continuation of the coverup. As such, they take on special importance.

Obama sends billions to Pakistan, but refused to give Benghazi any Marines.

In fact, it was Biden himself who broke into the Kennedy wardrobe to try on some of Bobby Kennedy's lines in his infamous 1988 Democratic primary debate plagiarism incident, and Biden's problems with plagiarism didn't end there. Nor did Biden's problems with plagiarism begin there.

“Bill is working on a number of strategies about what Hillary ought to do. He’s even gone so far as to play with various doomsday scenarios including up to the idea that Hillary would consider resigning over the issue if the Obama team tries to use her as a scapegoat.”

“Look, I’m generally dumber than most of the rest of the government. I mean, that’s what I’m paid to be.”

I mean, come on. Do I need to start getting a speech together? “I’d like to thank Antonio Gramsci and the Frankfurt School…”

$2.5 billion miracle-of-technology distracted by small, shiny object.

I killed Osama bin Laden, let me do stuff.

It strains even the most robust sense of credulity to expect voters to believe that Obama personally approves kill orders on suspected terrorists and closely supervised the Bin Laden kill, but mysteriously hasn't a clue what's going in Libya.

You can tell Obama is losing, because he’s even more smirky and shouty than normal, hurling insults and tossing out committee-generated one-liners.

That the vice president of the United States could put together a performance that was just one step short of Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe on a desk at the United Nations should be deeply disturbing to average Americans.

Freedom. It was fun while it lasted. 

Obama doesn’t have a big enough bus.

Photoshop™ Of The Day: Biden Locks Up The Hyena Vote

Joe Biden’s Been Laughing. Are You?

Biden: All Gaffed-Up And Ready To Go

Tonight, the Vice Presidential Debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan will be broadcast across the all networks, cable news channels and will be streamed live on YouTube™ and other internet sites.

The topics will be foreign and domestic policy.  This debate is of profound interest both nationally and internationally.

Marc A. Thiessen, a fellow with the American Enterprise Institute and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, broke the news on September 10, 2012 that “during his first 1,225 days in office, Obama attended his PDB [presidential daily briefing] just 536 times—or 43.8 percent of the time.”

Three days ago, Thiessen clearly defined a weapon for Ryan to use against the Vice President in tonight’s debate:  “Biden is fond of pointing out Romney and Paul Ryan’s lack of foreign policy experience. And it’s true, Biden does have a lot more experience than the GOP nominees—experience at being wrong.”

Thiessen on Biden’s bin Laden hypocrisy:

“Yet today it is Biden—the lone opponent of immediate action to kill bin Laden—who is painting Romney as unfit for office because he allegedly would have opposed it. There is, of course, no evidence that Romney would not have ordered the bin Laden raid. But we now know for certain that, were it up to Biden, the raid would not have gone forward.”

“Of course, Biden’s opposition to the bin Laden operation is not surprising. The fact is Biden has a near-perfect record of being wrong about almost every major foreign policy question that the United States has faced in the past three decades. He supported the nuclear freeze in the 1980s, opposed ballistic missile defense and warned of a new arms race if the United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (we did, and no arms race ensued). He opposed aiding the Nicaraguan democratic resistance that helped roll back communism in our hemisphere, the Reagan defense buildup that bankrupted the Soviet Union, the first Gulf War that liberated Kuwait, and the 2007 surge that turned back the insurgency and defeated al-Qaeda in Iraq. With this record, it is no shock that Biden opposed the killing of bin Laden as well. But it takes chutzpah for Biden to publicly castigate Romney for his imaginary opposition to the bin Laden operation, when Biden actually opposed the bin Laden operation.”

If Biden dares to repeat his now famous line, “GM is alive, and Bin Laden is dead,” Ryan can simply answer, “Bin Laden wouldn't be dead if you had your way, Joe.”

Pass the popcorn.  I'll take another Milk Dud. 

Biden: He’s In The Prime Of His Senility

Jim Geraghty notes, “A presidential reelection campaign needs three key elements: a defense of the incumbent’s record, a successful effort to define the opposition and a compelling vision of a second term.”

This regime’s campaign has distinct problems with all three elements.

Geraghty continues, “His defense of his record is exceptionally weak, his effort to define Mitt Romney is nearly exhausted, and his vision for the next four years—perhaps the most important—has been largely missing from his effort this year.”

Appearing on CBS’ Face the Nation, Senior Strategist David Axelrod was asked by host Bob Schieffer about the Chicago Messiah’s debate performance, "Do you think he was ill prepared? Some are saying it was the people that prepared him. You were in the room most of the time.”

Axelrod answered, "I was one of the people who prepared him. I'm happy to take whatever responsibility people want to assign to me.”

Axelrod helped with #OccupyResoluteDesk’s debate prep you say.  My, my, my.  The Weekly Standard is reporting that Vice President Biden is taking a little vacay from the campaign trail to cram for his debate with Romney running mate Paul Ryan with Axe and “other campaign advisers”.

I suspect that when the morning after photographs of the Vice Presidential Debate are released, if we look closely, we’ll see Axelrod’s hand up Biden’s ass pulling the strings and controlling every word Crazy Uncle Joe utters.  Then, when the VP debate turns into a bloodbath, “heartbroken“ Chris Matthews will know exactly how and why it happened.

Another Photoshop™ Of The Day: Biden And His Math Minute (Couldn’t Help Myself)

Will there be another Biden Math Minute?

See also:  Biden:  He’s In The Prime Of His Senility

Welcome Hot Air Readers.

Photoshop™ Of The Day: For Biden The Excitement Is Palpable

Photoshop™ Of The Day: I Gotta Debate Paul Ryan?