Following the Vice Presidential debate last night, many members of the Republican Party lambasted Joe Biden for being "rude," "disrespectful" and "a bully." Many Democrats have since scoffed at the notion. Some people have responded to all this by saying, "Wasn't it the Democrats whom were saying Romney was being rude, disrespectful and a bully after last week's debate? Weren't they saying the same things then?"
If we want to look at this from a black and white perspective, then yes, the Democratic Party largely reacted to the presidential debate in a very similar manner - in referring to Romney as rude, disrespectful, etc. However, if we want to look beyond that, I don't think the matter is quite so clear cut.
In the presidential debate, moderator Jim Lehrer had absolutely no control of the situation and while President Obama did run over on his allotted two minutes a few times, what stood out most to me was Romney's interrupting and what some would refer to as bullying moderator Jim Lehrer. At the Vice Presidential debate last night, moderator Martha Raddatz had far greater control than Lehrer in last week's debate and when the "rude" and "disrespectful" interruptions sprang from Biden's lips, they were in response to fibs told by Paul Ryan.
In the NFL, if a player pushes another after the whistle is blown, some may view this as being rude and uncalled for, but chances are they won't be ejected, fined or suspended for such an action. On the other hand, if a player, in response to what he felt was a bad call, attempted to intimidate and bully the head official with pushing, chances are he'd either be ejected, fined, suspended or a combination of the three. On the surface, sure, a push is a push, but I think the surrounding context is pretty relevant when distinguishing one from the other. So while I feel it's debatable whether or not Joe Biden was rude in interrupting Paul Ryan's fibs a night ago, I feel it was far more disrespectful for Mitt Romney to have interrupted and bullied Jim Lehrer - the moderator - at last week's debate.
If we want to look at this from a black and white perspective, then yes, the Democratic Party largely reacted to the presidential debate in a very similar manner - in referring to Romney as rude, disrespectful, etc. However, if we want to look beyond that, I don't think the matter is quite so clear cut.
In the presidential debate, moderator Jim Lehrer had absolutely no control of the situation and while President Obama did run over on his allotted two minutes a few times, what stood out most to me was Romney's interrupting and what some would refer to as bullying moderator Jim Lehrer. At the Vice Presidential debate last night, moderator Martha Raddatz had far greater control than Lehrer in last week's debate and when the "rude" and "disrespectful" interruptions sprang from Biden's lips, they were in response to fibs told by Paul Ryan.
In the NFL, if a player pushes another after the whistle is blown, some may view this as being rude and uncalled for, but chances are they won't be ejected, fined or suspended for such an action. On the other hand, if a player, in response to what he felt was a bad call, attempted to intimidate and bully the head official with pushing, chances are he'd either be ejected, fined, suspended or a combination of the three. On the surface, sure, a push is a push, but I think the surrounding context is pretty relevant when distinguishing one from the other. So while I feel it's debatable whether or not Joe Biden was rude in interrupting Paul Ryan's fibs a night ago, I feel it was far more disrespectful for Mitt Romney to have interrupted and bullied Jim Lehrer - the moderator - at last week's debate.
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