It was literally laughable to read Kathleen Parker's "critique" of "the inauthenticity" of Vice President Joe Biden's smile. ("Biden flunks sincerity test," Oct. 14).
Let's skip the fact that both Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan spent most of their respective debates wearing a smirk that would have made President George W. Bush's famed crooked grin seem palpably genuine.
But Ms. Parker's contention that Mr. Biden's own smile was "a tactical weapon intended to intimidate and out-psych his wonky opponent" is (no pun intended) ridiculous on its face.
It wasn't Mr. Biden's smile that was "dismissive, rude, and unnecessarily condescending." That was Mr. Ryan, whose campaign staff had attempted to get moderator Martha Raddatz to call him "Mr. Ryan" rather than "Congressman Ryan" — the better to make people forget Mr. Ryan has been part of a Republican majority that not only helped create the deficit that President Barack Obama inherited but has worked tirelessly to make him a one-term president.
If Vice President Biden's plan was to throw Congressman Ryan off his game plan, it clearly didn't work.
Ryan continued to dissemble how the Romney administration will pay for its proposed 20 percent tax cut; continued to lie about the Obama administration "stealing" $716 billion from Medicare (a cut that also exists in the famed Ryan budget plan); and continued to spread the out-and-out whopper about the Obama administration's refusal to back up Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's incoherent rhetoric about Iran "makes America look weak."
Ms. Parker's comment that Biden's smile was the smile of someone "stunned to hear such malarkey from his debate opponent" was true. And he wasn't the only one.
JAY HUNTER
Clifton Park
