It seemed at last Thursday’s vice presidential debate vice president Joe Biden and vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan had a slight case of the giggles.
The topics that were discussed were serious topics that the public wanted to hear the vice presidential candidates touch upon and give us their and the presidential candidates opinions and stances on not a laughing matter at all.
It seemed to me that whenever one of the candidates said something the other didn’t agree on, or thought that they were being miss-quoted they would smile to themselves and giggle. Compared to previous debates and the presidential debates this debate was a bit unprofessional in my eyes. Weather it was a nervous tick or what have you men of their standing should have those types of things under control.
The first topic of security when terror was brought up was a serious one and they both handled themselves professionally and gave educated responses that were backed by logic and their own personal ideas. Moving on to the topic of Iran was where the candidates got the giggles. It was obvious that Ryan did not agree with Biden’s opinions on “calming down” the security and watch that we now have on Iran and their nuclear weapon production. He also posed the idea that weakening our nuclear weapons would stop or slow down the production in Iran. Ryan clearly did not think these were good ideas and as Biden spoke a smirk appeared on Ryan’s face.
Medicare was the next stroke of the giggle factor when Ryan this time had ideas and stances that vice president Biden didn’t agree with. Biden was more adamant with his reactions. He had a large smile on his face, teeth showing and all and it was obvious that he was giggling to himself about the answer and points that Ryan was making. He laughed when Ryan stated that he included $716 billion in Medicare savings in his own budget plan. Biden giggled away at that. Ryan kept composed despite the vice presidents immature, or nervous giggles and went on with his side of the debate. It continued on like this as if they were in a high school debate laughing at each others points.
The debate was not at all what I expected it to be after watching the presidential debate, where I thought both presidential candidates were mature, professional and respectful of each other, minus the interruptions that often happened during their debate. I was expecting the vice presidential candidates to be just as poised. They were more nonchalant of their opponents’ debate points and uninterested in hearing what the other had to say, where as in the presidential debate both parties were actively listening to have a rebuttal each time.
I was disappointed in both of the candidates at how they conducted themselves, although the points that were discussed were very informational I was too distracted at times by the candidates reactions. They were rude and unprofessional at times and didn’t take in to account what the other was saying in some cases. In particular vice president Biden said what Ryan had just stated was untrue of his policies and ideas, maybe if Biden were listening and not giggling at his opponent he wouldn’t have made that mistake.
In previous interviews many people had stated that Biden and Ryan would have a good debate, however after it there were even more people on social media sites such as twitter and Facebook stating their disappointment in this debate. The giggles, I think, were a main factor in these opinions being formed.
