Reversal of fortune: The Tweets talk Biden

If there was an undisputed winner in last night’s Joe Biden vs. Paul Ryan debate, it was moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC News.

Beyond that, the blunt, aggressive Joe Biden will be at the vortex of the debate-over-the-debate tonight and Friday, and on talk shows during the weekend, and when the next batch of polls roll in next week.

“Obama just called Biden and asked what coffee he uses,” tweeted comedian Albert Brooks.

Jon Ralston, Nevada’s premier political reporter, summed it up with this tweet:  “People who like Biden will think this is the greatest debate ever:  Folks who don’t will find him at his most obnoxious.”

The widest audience since 2008 saw last night what other Democratic candidates found out during endless debates among Democratic presidential candidates in late 2007 and early 2008.  Biden takes the argument to his opponent.

And, last night, commentators on the right — and the Republicans’ presidential nominee — were doing the grousing, very much as ldeft pundits were moaning after President Obama’s performance last week.

Dick Morris, the Romney victory soothsayer on FOX News, tweeted:  “Ryan sounds vague and double talking about withdrawal date (from Afghanistan) even though he is right.”

SuperPAC mastermind and “Bush’s Brain” Karl Rove groused at Biden’s aggressiveness talking about Social Security and the voucher plan that Ryan proposed in Congress to take the place of Medicare.

“Biden is out of control and Raddatz appears to have given up trying to rein him in.”

Mitt Romney was heard with old-school haughtiness in the new medium of Twitter.  “It is a shame that Joe Biden, our vice president, is conducting himself in such an unprofessional and rude manner,” the Republican nominee opined.

And this was from the guy who interrupted Jim Lehrer 30 TIMES in last week’s debate between the presidential candidates.

The question already debated, during the Biden-Ryan face off, was whether Biden was making points with his voice — e.g. forcing Ryan to admit he asked for stimulus dollars s — or losing support with his constant doubting facial expressions.

“Is Veep better talking than smiling:  Not sure the look he flashes is making this point as aptly as his words,” tweeted Scott Simon, the National Public Radio weekend host.

Albert Brooks delivered a qualified — and very funny — upbeat assessment of the Veep:  “I actually like Joe Biden even though when he smiles he reminds me of the guy that sold me my worst car.”

Republican nabobs were trying — hard — to reassure themselves that Joe was blowing it.  “Ryan: Serious, sober, steady, Biden: Smirking, mocking, immature,” tweeted senior Romney adviser Eric (“Etch-a-Sketch”) Fehrnstrom.

“Biden is too hot — not effective,” claimed former Bush press spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Nicholas Kristoff, the New York Times scribe, saw a subtle skill in the Biden performance:  “Biden is pretty good at being sarcastic and lacerating without coming across as nasty.”

Biden clearly accomplished one goal.  He re-energized the Democratic base and the pro-Democratic pundits of cable TV.  He was a fighter who used words like “malarky” and “bluster” and the inelegant phrase:  “This is a bunch of stuff.”

Biden even managed, during foreign policy talk, to ratchet down a notch and say:  “Lets calm down a little here.”  He registered strong positive marks among undecided voters watching CNN and recording their reactions to the candidates.

The tweeters at The Stranger, Seattle’s very left alternative newspaper, reacted to the Vice President’s debating skills with ecstasy, the emotion and not the drug.

“What a moment:  Biden makes Ryan admit he asked for stimulus dollars,” tweeted Markos Moulitsas, proprietor of the daily kos website, a secular political Bible for the nation’s liberals.

Why the moments?  The same aggressiveness that a blunt Biden was showing in Democratic candidate debates five years ago while Obama was coming across like the law professor he once was.

Again, however, Biden took it down a notch with a Catholic’s I-won’t-impose-my-view-on-others position on abortion.  “Most Catholics in America will side with Biden, I suspect,” wrote blogger, social conservative and fiscal liberal Andrew Sullivan.

Chris Kissel, a Seattle University grad and journalist, now working radio in New York, tweeted of Ryan’s response:  “Is it a moral obligation to make moral choices for others?”

The objective?   “Pretty clear that Biden’s strategy tonight is to do everything Democrats wish Obama did last week,” tweeted Ezra Klein, the New York Times pundit tracking day-by-day developments in the 2012 presidential race.

An opposing view:  “Weird, inappropriate and condescending,” said Monica Crowley, an aide to former President Richard Nixon during his last years of self-rehabilitation.

Nixon knew a thing or two about losing a debate.