Vice President Joe Biden spent much of the debate against Congressman Paul Ryan making points to appeal to partisans, potentially wasting an effort to reach undecided voters, said GOPAC Chairman Frank Donatelli in an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV.
Donatelli said the story of the debate was the manner in which Biden made his points and the how he acted while Ryan was speaking, calling both a mistake.
Watch the exclusive interview here.
“He tried really hard to undo the damage of the very poor performance of the president just last week, and he tried a little too hard,” Donatelli said. “On a lot of Congressman Ryan's answers, he was smirking, he was interrupting Ryan and outside of real, strong Democratic partisans, that's not going to go over very well.”
The debate, he said, was “pretty good,” with each candidate covering a wide range of issues and laying out their vision for America, especially in terms of the economy.
“If you’re able to compare the two visions, and the economy doing poorly like it is, it was a good night for Republicans,” he said.
Biden squandered what Donatelli called the biggest audience you get during a campaign, giving up the chance to reach independents because he stuck to so many partisan talking points.
People get turned off by the Vice President’s “antics,” some of which the political veteran called disrespectful.
“When Biden criticized Romney's famous 47 percent remark, Ryan's response was really good,” he said. “[Ryan] said, 'I'm sure the vice president of all people knows that sometimes words don't come out right,' which was a very, very effective response. I'm not sure that Biden brought up the 47 percent remark after that at all.”
Donatelli called Ryan very well prepared on a range of issues and that he had very strong answers while effectively rebutting Biden on most of the charges he made.
“Romney and Ryan score well when they're able to talk about our terrible economic circumstances and how they have a different vision for getting this country working and moving again,” he said. “If I were Romney, that's the one thing that I'd be looking to do in every possible answer.”
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