Will Obama be a problem for Hillary in 2016?

Allahpundit made an interesting observation:

Has anyone let Hillary know, incidentally, that Obama thinks he no longer needs to worry about short-term electoral concerns? Not that executive amnesty is going to hurt her much in 2016—my strong suspicion is that it’ll help, if only in how it confounds GOP candidates—but his track record on improving other Democrats’ electoral chances is … not good. You would think party bigwigs might prefer less of a loose-cannon Obama at this point, if only for her sake, than having him spinning like Julie Andrews on the hilltop, flinging work permits at every illegal who strays by.

I just assumed that Obama would spend the next two years basically being the biggest asshole ever, but it never occurred to me how the presumptive Dem nominee would view Obama's behavior.  Hillary needs to figure out how much she can distance herself from Obama while still trying to claim her abysmal tenure as his Secretary of State as a plus on her résumé; the more strident and unpredictable Obama gets during his last two years in office, the tougher that will be for her to do.  Plus at any moment the media could push her aside and rally behind Elizabeth Warren instead, much the way they rallied behind Obama in 2008.  ( And with Joe Biden in the mix as well, who the hell knows what could happen. )

The Man Who Laughs

I really don't think Joe Biden's maniacal laughter during the VP debate did Obama any favors:

It's hard to take someone seriously when he's acting like such a clown during a serious discussion about Iran's attempts to get nuclear weapons.  Lots of people keep making comparisons to Jack Nicholson's portrayal of The Joker... it actually made me think more of Nicholson's performance in The Pledge, the scene where he is sitting there all looking disheveled and muttering crazy thoughts to himself.  But speaking of The Joker, did you know that a film based on Victor Hugo's novel The Man Who Laughs was the original inspiration for The Joker?

Predictions for tonight's VP debate

You should expect several obvious Obama campaign plants among the "undecideds" asking questions at the town hall tonight... they will try to put Ryan on the spot with stupid gotcha questions being asked by victims trying to play the absolute moral authority card.  At least one of these gotcha questions will end up backfiring on the Obama campaign in a major way, but they will be too dumb to realize it before it's too late.

Despite an entire week of debate prep, Joe Biden will still be Joe Biden.  He will say a lot of very dumb things but he will say them all with the utmost confidence. and the media will do their best to declare him the winner no matter how badly he does.  Biden will loudly blurt out some idiotic lie about Republicans, throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation... and then he'll put a big shit-eating grin on his face afterward.  Most of the media will call this absurd lie the best line of the night and the moment that Biden won the debate.  A few of the smarter lefty media folks won't even bother trying to defend Biden's awfulness, they'll just try to downplay the overall importance of the VP debate.

Paul Ryan will do great.  He'll make a lot of really great points, and back up what he's saying with a lot of facts and figures.  The media will do its best to portray Ryan's proficiency with math and familiarity with the budget as some sort of gaffe... they will try to say his reliance on numbers makes him seem cold and without empathy, or some such nonsense.  They will also try to find some terrible problem with Ryan's body language, even if there is nothing to find.

Update: Doh!  The VP debate wasn't the town hall debate, so you can scratch my first prediction... though I think that prediction will still hold true of the next debate between Obama and Romney.

Update: Lots of folks on the left want to think Biden won the debate.  I think it's very telling that so many Democrats seem to think being a good debater means loudly interrupting and acting like a clown.  He may have won the hearts of Democrats with his buffoonery, but I don't think he did himself any favors with independents.  I was right about Biden throwing up his hands and blurting out a stupid lie about Republicans... he did that when he tried to put 100% of the blame for the "Great Recession" on the GOP, despite the fact that Democrats controlled both houses of Congress when it happened.  I'm sure most Democrats loved hearing that sort of garbage, but I have yet to find one who's willing to call it the best line of the night.

Update: I was right about them trying to call Ryan cold.  WaPo's Richard Cohen calls Ryan "cold", "plastic" and "too actuarial"... but Biden was somehow both "real" and a "hack with heart", whatever the hell that means.