Here & Now

Tim Dale Analyzes the VP Debate

Frederica Freyberg:

But first, the vice-presidential candidates came out guns blazing last night in Kentucky. The debate covered a lot of territory, including these exchanges, the first about stimulus spending, the second about tax cuts.

Joe Biden:

He sent me two letters saying, by the way, can you send me some stimulus money for companies here in the state of Wisconsin? We sent millions of dollars. You know what?

Martha Raddatz:

You did ask for stimulus money, correct?

Paul Ryan:

On two occasions we advocated for constituents who were applying for grants. That’s what we do. We do that for all constituents.

Joe Biden:

I love that. This is such a bad program.

This is unconscionable. There is no need for this. The middle class got knocked on their heels. The Great Recession crushed them. They need some help now. The last people who need help are 120,000 families for another $500 billion tax cut over the next ten years.

Martha Raddatz:

Congressman.

Paul Ryan:

There aren’t enough rich people and small businesses to tax to pay for all their spending. And so the next time you hear them say don’t worry about it, we’ll get a few wealthy people to pay their fair share, watch out, middle class. The tax bill’s coming to you.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, pundits agree Wisconsin’s Republican VP nominee Paul Ryan more than held his own during last night’s debate. Let’s ask one of our leading experts on all things political, UW-La Crosse political scientist, Tim Dale. Thanks a lot for being here.

Tim Dale:

Thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

That was just a one-minute long clip out of a much longer debate, of course, but in your estimation who won that?

Tim Dale:

Well, your clips really captured well the debate that we saw last night, and I would actually declare both candidates the winner. When candidates enter a debate situation, they’re looking to accomplish certain goals, and Biden’s goal was to recapture the energy of the Democrats after what most consider to be a disappointing performance by Obama. Ryan’s goal last night was to go toe-to-toe with one of the leading foreign policy experts in the vice president, and he did an effective job at that. I think both candidates came out of that debate with something to be proud of, and I saw both sides really doing what they wanted to do going into the evening.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, going back to the presidential debate, I want to ask you, an expert in this field, what happened to Barack Obama?

Tim Dale:

Well, that’s– that’s been a really big question. I think that Obama planned going into the evening to be his typically calm and to have his typically calm demeanor when it came to answering questions and responding to challenges. So Mitt Romney had all the weight on him to really prove that September was a fluke. He had a really bad month leading into that debate. And I think Obama made a strategic choice, and his campaign made a strategic choice, to not have zingers, not have one-liners, show that he was what I think they thought was a presidential, even-keeled candidate. I think the strategy may have backfired a little bit, in the sense that they did not expect everything they got from Romney. It turned out it was a strategic error. I think it might be a mistake to think that the president messed up or made a mistake in terms of not appearing like he cared. I think that was really an intentional strategy. And I think it's a strategy that they ended up ultimately regretting.

Frederica Freyberg:

Do you suppose that last night’s VP debate kind of brought things back up to level playing field?

Tim Dale:

Well, in a sense it did because I think part of what we saw last night from Biden was an attempt to really recapture some of the energy that some of the Democratic base was feeling might have been lost given the performance Obama gave last week. Even Obama says he wishes he would have given a better performance. I think we are still in a waiting period here before the next presidential debate to see if there really was a recovery. I think Biden did exactly what he wanted to do, exactly what the campaign wanted Biden to do, but the question is going to remain in the forefront of people’s minds if Obama is going to be able to recapture that energy in the next debate.

Frederica Freyberg:

Clearly the Obama/Biden ticket think Wisconsin is an important state, both of them coming here directly after their national debate, and Joe Biden was in La Crosse today. What was that like as an event?

Tim Dale:

Well, it was definitely that post-debate event. Biden discussed the debate almost the entire time. The message was really aimed at a national audience. So the vice president is only the focus of attention for a short period of time in a campaign, and we really saw that today in La Crosse when Biden gave a message that resonated directly with all of his messages that he was giving last night in the debate. So he was reinforcing points. And I think that, right now, the way that Biden made the arguments last night, what he said today in La Crosse and what we’re going to hear from Obama in the next debate is really going to be the closing arguments for the president’s campaign going into these final days.