John Edwards' Revenge

First impressions: the Vice President wiped the floor with Ryan.

The Benghazi start was a little rough (and Martha Raddatz didn't help it by whitewashing Romney's comment--what he actually said was that the President sympathized with America's enemies), but there (as on every foreign policy question) Ryan was completely incapable of articulating what Romney would do better.

On taxes in particular, Ryan's refusal to outline the math (but insistence that sure, it all adds up) was about equal parts shifty and bush league. The Ryan pitch tonight was something like this: "If you elect Romney, we'll work with the other side to repeal the law of gravity. We won't give you details, because that would impede the bipartisan process, but of course it's possible."

I was disappointed to see reproductive rights absent until the final minutes, and (like Lawrence) wasn't thrilled with how the question was framed, but I thought the Vice President had exactly the right respons. Also, too: I am totally nicknaming my next kid "Zygote".

The gravitas gap was pretty glaring. If I took a drink every time Ryan rattled off a list of carefully memorized ethno/geographic proper nouns, I would be...well, to be honest, not substantially more inebriated than I am now. But still. Ryan was in way over his head at a lot of points, and it showed. The Vice President was comfortable with the issues; Ryan was too obviously tutored on foreign policy. Parallels to 2004 are too easy (and too comforting) and can only go so far, but what we saw tonight was what a lot of people saw when John Edwards went up against Dick Cheney.