"It would have been embarrassing if done in front of a mirror, much less on a debate stage."

The article rips Biden from start to end, yet it the title declares it yet a victory for Biden. Huh??

#2: that's what I'm scratching my head over as well. I really haven't seen anyone but far leftist kool-aiders claiming Biden was victorious. Most thought he was an embarrassment and a jerk.

What pathetic BS! Wapo thinks BiteMe won the debate? 0 can't even carry his own water, now he's going to cleanup and clarify the mess? Hellary's culpability is a shallow ploy in an effort to take the disaster off 0's hands just prior to the debate. It will not work. Romney has already reminded team 0 that the SoS is part of the Administration.

This dope should attempt in cranial/rectal separation before trying to float his next journalistic excrement. The wapo should be ashamed for printing this complete and total idiocy. But, then again they are facing utter desperation...

The first comment is right on target:
"If I were Gerson I would have a few words with editors who mischaracterized the contents of his opinion piece with this embarrassing headline. But maybe he is thinking it is just a matter of time before the Post can't afford to make payroll based on their circulation figures. Can't come soon enough for most of us."

My reading is that "victory" is used in an ironic sense. This is a pretty damning piece and clearly the author doesn't think Biden won anything but complete disgust from viewers.

So Biden got one point on foreign policy and he's victorious?

So what happens when an angry Obama who is the incumbent shows up? Smoke and mirrors? Let him channel Axelroid, maybe he can put the moron vote to sleep?

The subtle premise for morons to absorb is that the debate was a Biden victory. What a crock.

I heard that his "coach" for the debates was that repulsive Ed Shcultz. I know someone who watches his show regularly & it explains a lot about her repugnant, ridiculing behavior around anyone who doesn't support BO. It would be ironic & so fitting, if Biden's over-the-top-obnoxiousness is the thing that makes BO lose the election.

If he is, indeed, a fundamentally nice man, as Brit Hume said, then this was a huge, conscious act, one for which (if he truly is a good person) he will feel great guilt. It will haunt his Catholic conscience forever, because he knows that Paul Ryan is a good man and didn't deserve that horrific disrespect. A new low in American politics.

Huckabee has a good spot on Bidens debate debacle here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNJaPyipJk4

biteMe's performace was for the benefit of msnbc. barry & his band of clowns couldn't handle another week of bashing from chrissy & his ilk.

Nevermind he lied through his bleached teeth, acted like a boorish buffoon, & made a mockery of the office. This is how the rats play the game. The bad news for 'rats is those who are undecided saw his performace for what it was. Rude, disrespectful, unserious, & bizzarre.

read the comments after the article. they show how many dullards there are voting (but maybe not, hopefully) for this unbelievable man, who is a plagiarist, an embellisher, who has NO filter between what he thinks and what he says. there are people (commenters after the article) who say they'd support a presidential bid of his!! there are so many democrats who will vote for this administration. it is up to us to ask what "lies" r and r are telling and have ready and accurate responses to the answers. this race has not been won by romney and there is still a lot of work to be done before he can.

A "victory"? What debate was Gerson watching??

After all those facial mannerisms on television, I thought they would slam him in the bunker until the election is over.
Alas and alack, he is scheduled to discuss the coming debate the following day.
I'm beginning to think he is thinking of a new career after the fall- host moderator for a Lib news channel. He can partner up with Sharpton the sharp.

It really does help to read the article before commenting on its contents. This piece pretty much shreds Biden.

Reporters, by the way, do not write their own headlines. Editors write the headlines.

It is interesting to remember that Gerson is one of the founders of the "No Labels" movement by supposed moderates. If all the others that call themselves moderate feel the same way as Gerson, Romney is in very good shape.

I think a lot of shrewd Democrats, including Biden, think Obama is already toast. Then why the push to fire up the base by behaving so boorishly? Because low turnout among the base could cost the Democrats control of the Senate.

Remember please that Biden was already in the US Senate when vote revulsion over Watergate created the first "permanent Democrat majority" in the Senate. The real shock of election night in 1980 wasn't Reagan's win. It was the defeat of NINE incumbent Democrat Senators plus the pick up of three open seats to give Republicans a 53-46-1 majority. I suspect there are few things Biden wouldn't do to prevent a replay of that debacle.

Gerson has a way with words:

He displayed scene-chewing antics and preening exhibitionism and smirking rudeness and egotistical exuberance and bullying condescension. It was the attack of the feral ham actor. It would have been embarrassing if done in front of a mirror, much less on a debate stage.

I do find the headline ironically helpful, in that it will pull in the Leftaroos who DO think Biden won the debate, and then shred them with a meat-axe and tweezers.

Keep in mind, though, that neither Op-Ed Opinionistas nor regular on-the-beat reporters write headlines. That job goes to the page editor. Sometimes the discrepancy is Grand-Canyonesque.

Re the headline, it is a subtle jab at the Left that thinks Biden won. It could have appropriately been put in quotation marks.

Gerson's opening sentence should give everyone the clue - when he says never has a "victory" required so much damage control. His tongue is in his cheek.

Biden 'won the debate' like a wife-beater convinces the family to see things his way... and with all the neighbors watching.

Biden (and Raddatz) didn't just deny Ryan a fair chance to express his points without interferrence, he also denied America the right to hear him.

It should be clear even to the densest liberal by now that between Bidens $22,000 teeth and $15,000 of hair plugs there resides pure unadulterated mush. He's getting worse by the minute.

Two things: 1. If memory serves, Gerson is not exactly a Sarah Palin conservative, as others have ponted out. I'm thinking Biden didn't help 0 much with the "independents". 2. Haven't some of you folks heard of the term "Pyrrhic victory"? I think "toxic victory" is a pretty close synonym, and not TOO far off the mark.

For info, the editor of the editorial page writes the headline, not the author of the column.

What is really frightening about Biden's debate performance is that, as Clint Eastwood pointed out, "Biden is the intellect of the Democratic Party".

Please folks read the article before posting. Mikey has a way with words and the piece does stick it to BDF Biden. That debate was a total joke because of BFD's and Rattatz stooging of Ryan. Even so I still wouldn't even line my cockatoo's birdcage with this fish wrap of a newspaper.

Biden's "performance" is a main reason
Romney is pulling ahead with women voters. It was a wake up to the true feelings of this Dem ticket. (OMG, we hate demeaning, smirking, men like that!) Thanks, Joe.

The WaPo's comment board is thick with kool-aid drinkers who actually don't believe Biden's a liar and loved his "emotion" or whatever it was he displayed at the debate. It's troubling how many delusional people are out there.

A lot of people miss the mark with Biden. He is a nutcase. His pathological vanity makes him, at age 70, do silly looking things to his head and spend 10s of thousands of dollars on teeth caps and veneers that many movie stars don't bother with, especially at his age. That, coupled with his monumental ego that makes him say stupid things and expect everybody to ignore it because he is so special and can get away with saying anything and everybody must, absolutely must, adore him.

That's it. I believe that any non-political shrink on the planet would diagnose this guy as clinically crazy. And he's a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

Biden reminds me of a line from an old Hank Williams Sr. song. "He only uses his head to hold his ears apart". That sums him up in a nutshell.

Could anyone watch the debate without thinking of a jackass eating briers?

Imagine if everyone acted like Joe Biden.

'nuff said.

This isn't really surprising. From this point on, neither Biden nor Obama can be allowed to "lose." Obama could break down in tears and begin spasmodically bowing to the east at the next debate, and they would claim it indicated only his keen insight into world culture.

This is about Perception, henceforth. Reality is a lost cause.

The article savages Biden and documents the giant mess that Obama will have to try and clean up.
In addition to defending his own failed four years.
No one other than residents of a locked ward
at an institution could have found
Biden's mental breakdown enjoyable.
Biden demonstrated that is he is clearly incapable of assuming the Constitutional duties
required of him.
Had he behaved like this in the boardroom of a major
corporation, he would have been fired.
Biden's rarely discussed neurological history
( two craniotomies ) may have affected his behavior .
It's not amusing and should never have been excused and laughed at by the media for years.
Obama and Biden are the two most unqualified and unprofessional men
to have ever occupied the Oval Office.

#35 hit on something I overlooked, something very important. Biden has very survived two craniotomies to remove brain aneurysms. A craniotomey is a very serious operation. The surgons remove a part of the skull to access the brain and then remove part of the brain. Needless to say, it's a highly dangerous procedure that often leaves permanent brain damage. Brain damage manifests itself in many ways. Biden underwent 2 of these operations. Two. Didn't know that did you. You can bet the farm that this would disqualify a Republican from holding any National office - especially VP or POTUS.

The Media fears the Left at this point in history for the same reason if fears the Jihadis....this is how a dictatorial regime acts and sounds just before it takes direct 'action' to eliminate it's enemies. It not only has happened before but it has happened so many times that it is hard to miss for those who have even a smattering of historical perspective. The new regime will pick ALL new 'jurnolists'. Some are hoping to be the last ones hauled off.

I really hate rude people. Win, lose or draw this will have almost no effect on the election

God forgive me but I just wanted to slap him.

I really couldn't believe that the Democraps had selected Biden for the VP position in '08. He's always seemed a little simple, fey, obnoxious and more than a little like Col. Blusterbuss.

What did he ever do in Congress that anyone remembers? He was hardly a foreign policy expert despite being on the committee. It was all smoke and mirrors.

I think his brains are a little mixed up and he's not quite all there. Could it be the start of some more serious senior problem?

You're right #36. Remember Eagleton?

He was terrible and so obnoxious that even fervent political junkies like me had to turn him off.

Several posters provide correct and useful information, but there's more still.

1. It's correct that headlines aren't written by the article's author.
2. It is wrong to assume an innocent motive, such as "the usage is ironic." That's especially so in the case of the WaPo, NYT, LAT, Boston Globe, MSNBC, etc.
3. Important point not yet mentioned -- search engine manipulation via headline wording. We know the Left does it as a basic practice. This article will be one that's counted whenever some biased journo wants to "show" how many articles "said" "Biden won the debate."

#28 mentions women voters. I heard someone on radio describe Biden's performance as "reminding every woman of her ex-husband." That'll leave a mark.

#35, #36 offer and expand on important information. Can any Republican seek the highest two offices if he is literally "a head case," a la Biden? You'd see billboards, and t-shirts on Matthews et.al. -- "Headcase: Paul Ryan."

#39: You would only need G-d's forgiveness if you didn't hit Biden hard enough.

Romney needs only to reply --Is that what you want? The infamous one heart beat away
situation that can happen in an instant-- heir to the presidency?

IMPLANTED HEARING AID FOR THE DISABLED
Let's pretend Valerie Jaret and comrades are IN HIS HEAD, speaking to him through a high tech hearing device covertly IMPLANTED his head. This will result in his giving us a sense of pre-occupation, a bit of a delay in all answers, like reporters do from Cairo, and an intuitive feeling he is not right there on the spot! There will surely be some body motion and sound delay gieveaways if this premise is true. How else can this man who doesn't know the facts of his own job, otherwise be so slow witted and lacking in energy. Remember he is is a creature of the disabling teleprompter. Anything he ever said that SOUNDED good, gave the APPEARANCE of sounding good, was FED to him via two or more reading screens of staff writing. All those guys sweating it out in the White House basement should get some credit for their fakery. Nothing more sickening in the writer's world than not getting credit. You know, like all the covenient celebrity books
Security, be sure to KNOW WHERE JARET IS, and her nazi team of body guards, during the entire debate!!

But he has such a big expensive smile. Obama uses his so why not Joe? Who cares what he says when he can flash his teeth?

The only one with a bigger phony smile is Obama. I used to say that the best advice I could give anyone dealing with him one on one would be to never stare into his teeth. It's like his Medusa touch. He uses them to paralyze his prey while he picks their pockets.

Unskewedpolls.com predicts today that the next President of the United States will ..... be..... Mitt Romney.

Pray that this is correct.

I think the "debate victory" language is very ironic...or it was tossed out to give Gerson cover to eviscerate Biden. In any event, eviscerated he was. Ugly.