How Biden screwed up:

Vice president Biden did precisely what he should not have done: Open up more questions and create more problems for the president. The next debate will consist in large part of President Obama debating his vice president on everything from taxes to Libya. Obama is once again on defense with 3½ weeks to go in the race.

He might have energized his incivil base with his rudeness and antics, but he planted a couple IEDs for the campaign that are likely to blow up.

And here’s what Ryan should have said:

I think Ryan was right not to let Biden bait him into losing his cool. Ryan certainly came across as the more appealing, serious, and decent politician. But he would have done himself and his ticket a great service if he had simply turned to Biden and said something like, “Mr. Vice President these are serious issues and serious disagreements about the future of our country. I don’t find them funny and, frankly, I find your behavior here tonight beneath the dignity of your office.” It would have gelded Biden, elicited spontaneous applause in the audience, and endured as the most memorable soundbite of the whole debate. And, it would have been true.

Yes, it was a missed opportunity.

[Update a few minutes later]

Why Dems loved Biden’s boorish behavior:

The problem here is not just that presidents and would-be commanders-in-chief must appear presidential. It is that the liberal base of the president’s party is so filled with anger and contempt for Republicans that they can’t abide even a show of civility from their champions.

Yes, and when they mewl and whine about “incivility” from the right, like most of their complaints (racism, hate mongering, lying), it’s pure projection.

Biden was a jerk in the debate.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Here’s another one.

[Update a couple more minutes later]

Inadvertent comedy relief from television reporter wannabe David Shuster.

A first-hand report.

Tell them how you really feel:

I don’t mind stupid people. It’s stupid people who think they’re smart that aggravate me — which goes a long way toward explaining my profound and enduring antipathy to Vice President Joe Biden, the most vapid gasbag ever to hold the office.

Back when I was young and frisky and counsel to a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I routinely had to sit just a few feet behind and over from that insufferable blowhard. His chairmanship of Senate Judiciary was notable for two, and only two, things: his world-class logorrhea, and his serial character assassination of honorable men and women whose nominations he torpedoed for the crime of holding conservative convictions and taking the Constitution seriously. For someone with an intellect as shallow as Biden’s (76th out of 85 in his class at a law school that U.S. News ranks as 96th out of 200) — and who was a mendacious plagiarist to boot (see, e.g., Why Biden’s plagiarism shouldn’t be forgotten) — to question the qualifications and character of jurists like Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas required a veritable Everest of chutzpah.

In 2008, the mainstream media widely regarded Biden as adding “gravitas” to the Democratic ticket. Whether that says more about the shallowness of Barack Obama or the shallowness of his acolytes in the press is hard to say. Either way, I’m anticipating tonight’s debate with unseemly eagerness, indeed relish. Unlike Biden, Paul Ryan is a gentleman, so Slow Joe won’t get a taste of his own medicine. But next to the earnest, informed, disciplined, and precise Ryan, Biden can’t possibly go 90 minutes without exposing himself as a five-star buffoon.

I’ve got the popcorn popper ready.

[Update a while later]

“Joe just needs to be Joe.”

No worries, he’s not capable of being anyone smarter.