Leadership Thoughts On Joe Biden And The Vice Presidential Debate
October 13, 2012 
13 Comments
Courtesy: RollingStone.com and Google Images
This is the first political post I have ever written. I follow politics but never discuss it because of its polarizing and divisive nature. However, the behavior of Vice President Joe Biden during the recent Vice Presidential debate was absolutely horrifying.
Whether you think Vice President Biden won the debate or not, whether you are Democrat or Republican, or whether you plan on voting for President Obama or Governor Romney, is not the question. The question I have is what do you think of Vice President Biden’s behavior as a leader?
As I watched the debate unfold, I kept wondering how Mr. Biden’s behavior would be received in a leadership meeting at a church or business. How would his facial gestures, body language, talking over others, finger-pointing, laughter, and condescending attitude be received by other leaders in the room?
If Vice President Biden acted this way in our church’s elder meeting, staff meeting, or an executive meeting at ISS, he would have been sharply rebuked at a minimum, asked to leave and never invited back to a leadership meeting most likely, and probably terminated. If you don’t think I’m right, try doing what he did at YOUR next leadership meeting. See how it turns out.
It was then that I became horrified. I ask you, if that behavior would not be tolerated at an average church or business, why do we tolerate it at the highest levels of leadership of our country? Why do expect more from ourselves and those we serve beside every day than we do the highest offices in the land?
I am not telling you who to vote for. It has been proven that VP debates do not greatly impact presidential elections. Who you vote for is your decision. However, I think no matter what side of the aisle we may stand on, the time has come for ALL Americans to scream “ENOUGH!!!! We want LEADERS to act like LEADERS!!!”"
I welcome healthy debate. However, I simply have no hope or confidence that I will see it in the final two presidential debates. Maybe I will be proven wrong.
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Brian,
I totally agree. His condescending demeanor and arrogant rudeness were an embarrassment to our country and to our democratic heritage. Unfortunately, many Democrats are applauding him, even though they would never want to be treated like that.
VP Biden has a leadership position, but demonstrates very poor leadership qualities.
Greg
Brian, I couldn’t agree with you more. I know that if I acted in that way our next leadership meeting, not only would I be reprimanded, I would at minimum be stripped of my leadership role, but most liklely fired. VP Biden must have thought that he looked strong with his condescending attitude, but instead he actually made himself look very foolish, not a quality I want of any of my leaders. Awesome post.
Brian, great insight on several levels. This kind of behavior would not be tolerated in the church, yet we tolerate it at such high levels. such a sad state of things today.
charles
This was a debate, not a leadership meeting. I will not question your reason for this post, but Romney did the same thing to the President. To suggest that he was an embarssment to the country is totally off base. There is more than enough data from history to affirm that the framers of the Constution was far more (by your definition) disrespectful than the Vice President. It’s amazing how we judge a person’s performance in a debat without understanding his personality and the context of what has become an adversarial political environment.
Anthony, I don’t disagree with your historical facts. But when is it OK as a leader to be disrespectful? My personality and natural makeup is one of sinfulness. Should I let me personality lead to disrespect of others? Or should I bring it into submission? As a leader I have many times been challenged, resisted. Do I fight fire with fire, or should I by the wiser, less foolish person, and take the high-road, act differently, and treat others with more gentleness, than what they treat me with? Although this was a debate, and a leadership meeting, our VP should’ve acted as a responsible, mature leader, since he expect us voters to vote for the President. He was a reflection of the president during the debate whether he says that or not.
I’m sorry, but I don’t think that there was anything that VP Joe Biden did or said that was disrespectful, but that’s politics for us today. II don’t believe that there is ever a time for anyone to be disrespectful to anyone, but that’s politics for us today. In my opinion Pres. Obama lost the debate because he had no passion…He lost on style, not substance…He was out talked, not out truth. So, lets do this: we will agree to disagree and in doing so we will be more respectful to one another than 99.9% of the politics of the last three years. Quite frankly I think it’s more disrespectful call the President of the United States by his first name rather than President Obama, then anything that VP Biden did in the debate. But I digress. Sorry.
Brian,
I rarely write comments to articles, however yours caught my attention. What was interesting to me was that you comment on Vice President Joe Biden’s debate tactics but did not comment about Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst calling President Barak Obama a liar. Personally, I am extremely saddened by a lack of spiritual understanding. I believe our nation lost spiritual footing on that day when no one challenged Rep Joe Wilson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqr2CBtrJz4
During an appearance on CNN after Obama’s speech, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wilson’s outburst was “totally disrespectful — [there's] no place for it in that setting or any other and he should apologize immediately.”
This Sunday in our local newspaper, The Cincinnati Enquirer, there was an article on ‘The Insidious Rise of Rudeness” http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20121014/NEWS0106/310140037/The-insidious-rise-of-rudeness?odyssey=tab%7Cmostpopular%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE&nclick_check=1
The article suggests in the past 4 years, the internet, cell phone, the economy etc. may be to blame. I believe the signal event during President Obama’s speech ushered in a season of rudeness. If someone can disrespect the highest position in the world, anyone can be disrespected.
I haven’t agreed with every decision any President has made however I have never disrespected the office of President. In the bible we are warned not to resist those who are in authority over us. If you resist those who have authority over you, you resist God! We are admonished to pray for those who are in authority over us.
Romans 13:1-2 (GW)
1 Every person should obey the government in power. No government would exist if it hadn’t been established by God. The governments which exist have been put in place by God.
2 Therefore, whoever resists the government opposes what God has established. Those who resist will bring punishment on themselves.
Chuck, I completely agree with you. I have never in my lifetime or in the history of the presidency heard of any member of our congress, being disrespectful towards our president as was Rep. Wilson was towards President Obama. And I must add,I did not vote for Obama. But I pray for my leaders and don’t want to see them disrespected whether I voted for them or not.
Brian, you really nailed it. What an embarrassment Biden was to the nation. I recall what George HW Bush said in his reelectionc ampaign, “Where’s the outrage?” There is no outrage anymore in this country. Planned Parenthood “celebrates” killing 6 million babies–oddly enough, the same number we use when describing the deaths of Nazi Germany. Where’s the outrage?
Just checking back to see if there was any comments about how Romney treated the the President in the the second debat….
Pastor Anthony,
Thanks for checking back. Your conversation with Juan was very productive and I appreciated your comments that sometimes we must simply agree to disagree. Regarding the Presidential debate, I think it is universally considered approached the time together with passion and intensity.
Quite frankly, I have not heard any news outlet state either man was out of bounds. Hopefully, this entire process will have a high level of civility. That should be a fundamental standard for anyone in leadership.
On a different note, I really appreciate your voice being interjected into the leadership conversation. I hope you comment on other posts as well.
Brian
Brain, you are the man…As we say in the hood. Thanks for all you do and provide to help me and others step-up our leadership game for our Saviour. Blessing