The Benshi

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy … how will he ever do it. How will Joe Biden restrain himself from “rising above” in his debate with Paul Ryan. Yikes. It’s the biggest challenge he faces (audiences don’t like it), but he managed to avoid it with Sarah Palin so I’m guessing he’ll succeed again, though he may tear his hair (plugs) out.LOOK … I’M OLDER AND SMARTER THAN YOU.

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BIDEN VS. PALIN

In my book I talked about the basic problem of, “rising above” — meaning arrogance, condescension, and the idea of looking down on the person you’re speaking to. Audiences have little tolerance for it (unless it’s really funny).

This is what Joe Biden is facing on Thursday night in his debate with the youngster he’s paired up against. I don’t think I could manage to avoid it if I were him, but he faced the same challenge (even bigger) four years ago when he debated Sarah Palin. Back then he just laid low, didn’t commit any blunders, and let her score a supposed victory which was based on the fact that she proved herself capable of speaking in entire sentences and not producing any howlers that she had already become known for.

Here’s something more fun to watch– how many times Biden starts his sentences with, “Look …” As in, “Look, we don’t have time to take apart your budget …” I don’t know why I find it so irritating when someone uses this word over and over again, but he is definitely about the worst. I betcha he’ll say it at least 10 times during the debate. I’ll be counting.