Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Yesterday, in the immediate aftermath of the VP debate, pundits and polls called it a draw, citing Joe Biden's aggressiveness.

Today, as people who saw the debate begin talking to their friends and families, the "draw" will begin looking more and more like a Ryan victory, as the stories of Biden's rudeness circulate.   Women, independents, and moderates have for decades asked for more civility in politics.   Obama campaigned in 2008 largely on the basis of being "cool" and "bipartisan" and has since lectured us (remember Gabby Giffords?) on civility on numerous occasions.   Biden's performance showed Obama's 2008 campaign to be a lie, and will turn off the voters the Democrats needed to reach.

Tomorrow, this Biden gaffe -- as reported by Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post -- will begin (if it hasn't already) reaching the national consciousness:

Vice President Joe Biden served up the worst gaffe of any of the 2012 debates, in a moment that will harm not only him but also his boss. Sure, the obnoxious grimacing and the mannerisms will be mocked relentlessly, but it was his egregious misstatement on Benghazi that will now plague the Obama-Biden ticket.

The exchange went like this:

MARTHA RADDATZ: And they wanted more security there.

BIDEN: But we weren’t told they wanted more security there. We did not know they wanted more security there.

That was just flat-out false. As many fact-checkers, reporters and pundits instantly pointed out, multiple State Department employees testified just the day before that their pleas for more security were denied....

Was Biden lying? Was he really so clueless that even now he didn’t know what had occurred? In either case, it will cement the notion that the administration wasn’t paying attention to events in Libya (even now!).