Joe Biden breaks into Jennifer Granholm’s medicine cabinet and tries to overdose *UPDATES*

Do you remember Jennifer Granholm at the DNC, when she was yelling and gesticulating wildly?  She was a 33 rpm record playing at 78.

Watching the Vice Presidential debate tonight, it was obvious that Joe Biden had broken into her medicine cabinet and taken twice the dosage.  Either that, or he was auditioning for the part of the crazy, rude uncle in the high school play.  Or of course, he is a crazy, rude guy who didn’t have to medicate or pretend to put on the performance we saw at the debate.

Joe’s demeanor was nothing short of appalling.  When one thinks of what a few gusty sighs did to Al Gore’s presidential aspirations, Biden’s debate performance should earn him deportation.  He was by turns loud, obnoxious, condescending, and disrespectful.  He smirked, giggled, sighed, and huffed his disbelief at everything Paul Ryan said.  He also talked over at least half of Ryan’s answers.  Thanks to Joe’s behavior, this was not a serious debate about substantive issues for the benefit of concerned citizens.  This was a crude charade by a demagogue throwing red meat to his followers.

The good thing was that Ryan was able to make his points quickly and efficiently.  The bad thing was that he occasionally looked like a deer in the headlights.  I understand that this look reflected his amazement at Joe’s behavior, his shock at Joe’s bald-faced lies, and his frustration that both Joe and debate moderator Martha Raddatz kept cutting him off and giving the floor to the crazy uncle.  Still, I wish he hadn’t been such a polite Midwesterner.

Thinking about it, though, Ryan may have done just the right thing.  While the base probably found Joe’s performance exciting and emotionally honest, I suspect that millions of Americans did not appreciate that Joe made a mockery of a ritual performance that is meant to enhance the honor of the presidential office and to give voters an opportunity to compare the two parties.  If people were actually comparing the two debaters, Ryan was an attractive, polite, stable, normal, well-informed young man.  Joe was the bloviating, obnoxious drunk at the bar who had grabbed Ryan by his lapel and wouldn’t let go.  You could practically see Ryan’s hair melt from the noxious odors wafting out from behind Joe’s peculiarly whitened dentures.

I do not know that I have ever before seen such a loathsome spectacle at the national level.  In a sane world, the moderator would have reined him in.  In a decent world, Joe would call a press conference tomorrow to apologize for his behavior.  In the real world, the media will laud his energy, aggression, and mastery of the “facts.”

If this is what our political process has come too, we are in trouble.  The Obama administration is damaging the very fabric of our democracy, and the drunk, crazy uncle they hauled out for the debate tonight is one of the weapons in their arsenal.

RUNNING UPDATES:

Bruce Kesler has word on the first tracking results, and they say that Biden’s demeanor was a turn-off for Independents.  Thank goodness!  It means Americans still have some standards.

Hot Air calls Biden an “angry old man” and adds that the CNN insta-poll has Ryan in the lead by 4 points.

Ben Shapiro says Biden lost it — and has the pictures to prove it.

Chris Wallace calls Biden “openly contemptuous and disrespectful.”

PowerLine has a great photo essay, one that seems overwhelmed by Joe Biden’s teeth.  He was like Mr. Ed, without the comic charm or intelligence.

Bryan Preston, looking at the substance, thinks it wasn’t a game changer.  I hope he’s underestimating the damage Biden’s behavior caused.

Ace says that it was enough that Ryan won in the polls:  the Obama team has now lost two debates in a row.

Keith Koffler thinks the incessant laughter was a bad strategy and may have offended women who too often find themselves on the receiving end of the same tactics Biden turned on Ryan.

Wolf Howling calls it “a debacle.”  That sounds about right.  Biden was manic, and Ryan was too politely deferential — although see my point that this might have been his only realistic strategy in the face of insanity.  I always tell my kids “never argue with the crazy person.”

Thomas Lifson said Biden disgraced himself and appeared “unstable.”  I agree.

The Blaze has a collection of Biden’s facial expressions.Those teeth are going to pursue me in my nightmares.

That was fast.  The RNC already has a video:

From what I read, libs on Twitter were thrilled with Biden’s performance. That shouldn’t surprise me. They were also thrilled by the Occupiers when they defecated on public streets.

The Daily Mail, the most read internet newspaper in the world, calls it for Ryan.

Fred Barnes says Biden’s debate performance will go down in history — only not in a good way.

Neo-Neocon and I had a few of the same ideas about Biden’s affect.