California partisans gave Thursday night's debate win to their candidate after an aggressive Joe Biden tried to make up political ground sparring with Republican candidate Paul Ryan in the vice presidential debate in Kentucky.
Still, the level of happiness with Ryan's performance among Republicans failed to match that of Democrats with their candidate's, according to Patch's flash poll of influential California party members.
Vice President Biden took the offense against the GOP congressman, who responded in calm, wonky terms, giving voters a rare chance to see the two together on a national stage.
While 85 percent of the 13 Democrats taking the Patch survey said Biden won the debate by a wide margin, only 44 percent of the 18 California Republicans who returned the poll said the same.
Asked who the national media would judge as the winner, Democrats responded that 62 percent would give the win to Biden while only 5 percent of Republicans thought the same of their candidate.
GOP insiders were also asked if they agreed with the statement that Ryan's debate performance will increase the number of California votes for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Seventeen percent strongly agreed.
When the question was put to Democrats whether Biden's performance will increase California votes for Obama, 62 percent of the Democrats strongly agreed.
Republicans were critical of Biden's demeanor, with one chiding the vice president for his "disrespectful interruptions and derisive laughter" and another noting his "smirks and disrespectful chuckles."
For their part, California Democrats were clearly happy with the debate at Centre College in Danville, KY, but they were pointed in their comments contrasting Biden with that of the president's lackluster performance in the first presidential debate on Oct. 3.
"Biden was a breath of fresh air - Obama should take note," said one Democrat. Another noted: "Obama needed this one and now it is in his camp."
Obama next meets Romney on Tuesday at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. CNN political correspondent Cindy Crowley will moderate the town hall meeting.
Our surveys are not a scientific random sample of any larger population, but rather an effort to listen to a swath of influential local Republican and Democratic activists, party leaders and elected officials in California. All of these individuals have agreed to participate in surveys, although not all responded to this week's questions.
Patch will be conducting Red California and Blue California surveys throughout 2012 in hopes of determining the true sentiment of Republicans and Democrats on the ground in California. If you are an activist, party leader or elected official and would like to take part in a weekly surveys that lasts just a few minutes, please email Sandra Oshiro.
BTW, on the big "FAIRNESS" issue, how much of someone else's hard work are you entitled to?
So, the moral to this is, if you do not have millions or do not belong to Ryayn's Tea Party and the Wrongly/Ryayn ticket is successful in November, you WILL lose!
Even if congress GOP keeps operating the way they have for the last 4 years it's by far preferable to replacing Obama with a tax cheat who eyes everything as a possible profit, lies every time he opens his mouth and wants to get back to prosecuting those profitable wars and being the bully on the world block.
http://www.professorbainbridge.com/professorbainbridgecom/2009/06/is-california-going-down-the-tubes.html
I'm not sure if your comment is even meant to be taken seriously, but spreading such misinformation is both ignorant and offensive. Civil rights during the late 19th century was primarily a north vs. south issue, not a Republican vs. Democrat issue. The modern Republican party was formed in 1854 and came about primarily to combat slavery. Lincoln was the first Republican president and was obviously a key player in abolishing slavery. However, to say that Democrats supported slavery is completely misleading. The Democratic party was immensely fractured at the end of the 19th century. In fact, in 1860 there was both a Northern and Southern Democrat running against Lincoln for the Presidency. Your comment would be accurate if you had said "to vote for a southern democrat in 1860 would have been to vote for slavery" because that is precisely what it would have been. To present statistics from 150 years ago as relevant to the political culture of today is simply foolish. The Democratic party of today supports civil and political rights much more than the Republican party of today does.
Hindsight is their only virtue. Anyone thinking Romney is their savior needs new meds.