I’ve had to up the dosage of my depression meds this week. I’ve been, well – under the circumstances. It all started last week when Mitt Romney thoroughly trounced Barack Obama in the Presidential debate in Denver. I tried very hard afterward not to crow or, as Obama did after the successful bin Laden assassination, spike the proverbial ball. Perhaps I was not altogether successful at that.  The upshot was, none of my liberal friends have lately come out to play with me here on Newsvine. Sigh. My comments this week have been met with stunning silence. Crickets, as we say. I'm getting very lonely.

After spending last evening watching the “interesting” debate style of Vice President Joe Biden and concluding that over all the debate was a wash, I’m wondering how my liberal friends will view the debate.  Even very left-leaning television and internet news outlets like CNN have Biden’s Republican opponent, Paul Ryan, winning the night. I will not say it was his sterling debate style that helped him come out on top. Joe Biden, like the President last week, has managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by virtue of his demeanor.

Throughout the match last night, Joe Biden’s split-screen images would have made rubber-faced Jim Carey jealous. He snorted, rolled his eyes, laughed aloud at inappropriate moments and generally came off as a condescending old coot. (It makes one wonder just how much of Kentucky’s famous bourbon Biden was sampling prior to the event.) Ryan, on the other hand, kept his cool and even once politely suggested to Biden that the American public would be better served if the Veep could keep his rude interruptions to a minimum. That didn’t seem to help. As a matter of fact, Biden’s behavior was even worse than Al Gore’s dramatic sighing during his 2000 debate against George W. Bush. (I expect it will have a similar, unpleasant result as well.) It was probably meant to convey a message…something along the lines of, “This kid doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” but what it really did is diminish Mister Biden’s stature even further than his famous gaffs already have.

Last night, even though Congressman Ryan proved that he knew his stuff inside and out, the Vice President’s experience did show. Not that he had any answers to the problems Americans face. Certainly not that he had anything of substance to offer. He just came off as older folks generally do, like an ancient owl. It has long been my contention that youth and enthusiasm is never a foil for old age and treachery. I think we saw that in action last night.

Biden came out to revive the democrats who were hiding under their desks after last weeks Denver drubbing. I believe he might have accomplished some of that. But he also left independent voters with a less than favorable impression of the Obama Biden ticket. No, Biden told us. Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney don’t know what they’re doing, but we just want to do more of the same in spite of what “appears” to be policy failure after policy disaster. It’s getting better. No. Really it is.

“We just need a little more time.” Biden told us, more or less.

Ryan came across as a sincere young man with the energy and fortitude to take a dysfunctional congress and create from it the problem-solving team they’re supposed to be. His message, as always was, “We have a very clear choice in this election. We can choose success for our nation or failure. It’s all up to the voters.”

While the debate was something less than a cataclysmic win, I believe we will see the Obama yard signs coming down one by one across America as the Romney/Ryan movement gains power and strength. Now, more than ever, we see the writing on the wall. “Lead, follow or get out of the way.”