Biden Helps Democrats to Mobilize the Electorate

It was a great show that probably won Joe Biden, the most militant and vigorous. But, unsurprisingly, the debate between the current vice president and the Republican, Paul Ryan, not decided anything in this campaign. If anything, served to confirm that the Democratic Party is in need of an emotional boost to mobilize their voters in order to win this election.

In the debate on Thursday in Danville (Kentucky), Biden did what he could in that sense, it was pretty. But who has to get it, really, is Barack Obama in the debate next Tuesday in New York. The Democratic Party had until recently all the pieces to get the win on Nov. 6: the favorable economic trend, the proper management in the previous mandate and the creation of an electoral majority more than enough. But voters are deflated with the discussion of Denver, where they saw the worst version of Obama, which lost him supporters in these four years, and now many are wondering what to do.

For some analysts, Obama Biden taught the way to go. Vigorous, compelling, passionate verging on rude, showed Biden believe in his candidacy and expressed ambition and reason enough to be reelected. Now Obama asked to do the same, but Obama is not Biden. Moreover, Obama is the opposite of Biden, and ask a similar transformation can be risky.

Biden has achieved at least stop the discouragement that had been generated among Democrats. You may also stop the fall of the Democratic nomination in the polls, which are now essentially equal, with slight advantages for Obama in most battleground states.

The vice president had difficulty explaining why no more security in the diplomatic representation in Benghazi at the time of the attack that killed the U.S. ambassador, but dominated the scenario in most of the rest of the debate. Wisely defended the government's economic policy and frequently exposed his rival to the fact that the Republican nomination is not actually a viable alternative to offer. "Stop talking about how you help people, teach me something, show me a policy proposal," said one of the brightest moments of the night.

Ryan did not get to be on the ropes in no time. Although Biden stumbled when he showed that he, as a congressman from Wisconsin, had taken advantage of the economic stimulus plan in his own state, he managed to bring to light some of the weak points of performance management, such as the excessive public spending. "Not enough nor rich enough for small businesses to raise taxes to pay for what you spend," said running mate for Mitt Romney.

But, perhaps, the main merit of Ryan, as the Romney himself a week earlier, was to shed the label of extremist reached with the debate. Romney-Ryan duo decided to sprint toward the center in the remaining days until the election, and, so far, is succeeding in that effort. In his recent speeches, both have shown conciliators in cases that were previously extremely belligerent, as health care reform or abortion, and have not scored a great distance with the government on foreign policy.

Romney said these days that keep some aspects of health reform and Obama has no plans to legislate on abortion. In his speech on Monday on foreign policy, respect the deadlines for withdrawal from Afghanistan and called for intervention in Syria or an immediate attack on Iran. In Thursday's debate, Ryan accused the current president of weakness with Iran, but did not mention how a Republican president would be stronger, except with more sanctions.

This shift from the Republican to the center makes it difficult for Obama to use what had been their main weapon so far in this campaign: the alarm about the danger of the right. But at the same time, you get another that has been little used so far: the constant changes of opinion Romney. There are many videos of the Republican candidate promising to eliminate the federal law on abortion rights and health care reform repeal the first day of his presidency, Obama's advisers will not have much difficulty to choose one with which to expose their contradictions Romney.

Something is supposed to happen in the debate next Tuesday. There is enormous pressure on Obama to be more aggressive, to remove all possible dirt. It's like asking a snail quicken the pace. But if Obama loses the second debate, the problems of today can begin to be unsolvable.