Joe Biden certainly didn’t disappoint those who tuned in to the vice presidential debate looking for something more than just a dry argument; his somewhat sarcastic, increasingly agitated replies to Paul Ryan are already the subject of web gossip and memes this morning.
It began with Biden calling malarkey after Ryan was asked to give his opinion on the Libya attacks on 9/11, saying, “With all due respect, that’s a bunch of malarkey. Not a thing he said was accurate.” The word came up several more times during the debate, with Biden substituting it for “stuff” at one point and making it clear that the term he really wanted to use wasn’t appropriate for the occasion.
Ryan seemed to enjoy taking small digs at Biden, alternately telling the elder candidate that he seemed to be under duress–to which Biden laughed–and responding to Biden bringing up Romney’s “47%” remarks with, “As the vice president very well knows … sometimes the words don’t come out of your mouth the right way.” Biden, in turn, chose to be feisty where Obama played it cool, not letting any topic go untouched and calling out the Romney campaign on several points.
With such an important election–and with Obama getting blasted by the media for a lackluster performance during his own debate–the pressure has been on Biden and Ryan to amp things up a bit, and it seems they hit the mark last night. The next debates will be on October 16th and 22nd.