http://www.bostonherald.com//news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1061167091&utm_source=Enews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SitewideUpdate_DATE_10-12-2012--16.15

Joe Biden makes case for ... term limits

By Howie Carr
Friday, October 12, 2012 - Updated 1 hour ago

Boston Herald Columnist

Hey Joe Biden, what’s so funny?

The only real takeaway from this debate is we really need term limits for politicians. Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972 at age 30. Somewhere around 1992, he should have had to go out and get a real job.

Nothing like having to answer to a boss to make you a little more humble. What’s up with the smirking? It seemed like Clint Eastwood was back up on stage, this time in character from “Gran Torino.”

“Get off my lawn!”

Not that it’s saying much, but Joe Biden was better than his boss, “Barack America,” as he’s been known to call Obama. But he got off to a rather poor start with his finger-pointing about Benghazi. Whose fault was this disaster? Biden’s story didn’t jibe with the latest rationalizations. He said, “We were not told that they wanted more security, we did not know they wanted more security.”

Huh? Hasn’t that statement been “inoperative,” as Ron Ziegler used to say, since at least Wednesday? That’s a poor way to start a 90-minute debate, with a big whopper.

And Martha Raddatz — maybe inviting Barack to her second wedding should have disqualified her. Why didn’t she interrupt Biden as much as she interrupted Ryan? I remember her when she was Martha Bradlee of Ch. 5. Martha Bradlee wouldn’t have let Biden get away with all that high-school Harry malarkey, to coin a phrase.

Man, Biden really is an old-line Democrat. He waved the bloody shirts, all of them. These Republicans, they want to get rid of home-mortgage deductions, and Medicare, and Social Security, and oh yeah, Roe v. Wade.

Speaking of which, his religion guides his life. That’s why he used to vote against abortion in the Senate, just like Ted Kennedy. Then the polling numbers changed, and now, well, never mind. He wouldn’t attempt to impose his beliefs on anyone else. Except, of course, about how much money “millionaires” need to live on. Then, he’s quite sure he knows how to, you know, “level the playing field.”

Rep. Paul Ryan was OK. He showed deference, never taking the bait from the garrulous old fool. He got off his one allotted zinger, answering Biden about Mitt Romney’s 47 percent crack, saying the vice president surely knows what it’s like to have something come out of your mouth not quite in the way you intended.

Biden mentioned that Ryan had his own 47 percent moment, when he said that 30 percent of the American people are “takers.” But does anyone outside of MSNBC really doubt those numbers? Mitt’s problem was his number was too high. Ryan’s was about right.

Do you want to ever watch another vice presidential debate? I’m not sure if the problem is with the debates themselves, or the fact that Joe Biden seems to be in all of them.

Enough with the undercard. Let’s get back to the main event.

VP debate update 10/12: