Biden Seeks to Calm Democrats Tonight

Mike Allen: “Conversations with advisers to the V.P. candidates suggest that both will be very aggressive tonight. One of Vice President Biden’s missions is to calm down President Obama’s supporters — particularly the progressives who, in the view of the White House, have overreacted to the disappointing first debate. Biden plans to do that by making Ryan answer for his own proposals, as well as Romney’s. The V.P. wants to stay more on offense than on defense, and expose and explain contrasts. His style is to demonstrate a mastery of specifics, then step back in ‘Regular Joe’ style to relate to viewers. His prep team in Wilmington, Del., included Ron Klain and Bruce Reed. His mock debates were formal, but aides dressed casually.”

“Paul Ryan has been watching game film of Biden, including the ’08 debate with Sarah Palin and the V.P.’s Meet the Press appearance in May, to try to get in his head. Since the Republican convention, Ryan has been buried in a pair of debate-prep binders – one for foreign issues, one for domestic. As Ryan rewrote and edited his responses, the drafts were sent to Boston for fact-checking, then added to the binders. Ryan plans to call out the President and Vice President for what he considers mischaracterizations of GOP positions, and will argue that he has worked hard on these measures, and knows they are being mis-described.”

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