Joe Biden's Ethos

Throughout this essay, Biden shows many examples of different styles of ethos. Some of the most obvious examples that can be found in this debate are the simple ideas such as when he is constantly critisizing the opponent's character. Even though the question proposed what "What are some of the promises that YOUR campaign made that they aren't going to be able to uphold?" He speaks about Obama and his plan for about five seconds and then continues to talk about how horrible McCain's plan is for the rest of his time. He talks about what McCain is doing wrong with his plans and how all of the tax cuts are ridiculous and not what America needs right now and so on. Then at the end of his time to speak he says that he WOULD say many more things about what his campaign would do but the light was blinking at him and telling him that he was out of time to talk. He spent so much time ragging on his opponent and making him look worse that he couldn't even properly answer the proposed question. This is a perfect example of Ad Hominen.

Biden also trys to make himself look like a "regular old joe." He wants to be seen as just another citizen who cares and wants to make a change in the world. He works to create the correct image with his suit and the flag pin properly placed on his collar. I remember when the press had a huge fit with Obama when he wasn't wearing his flag pin because they wanted to all be able to pull the card and say that he isn't patriotic. I think that Biden understands that he is already behind other people in the ethos race because many people know about his outspoken personality and many aren't too huge of fans of him. He has to create a guarded character to make sure that he can be what the people want from their Vice President. So throughout the whole debate he tries very hard to keep his cool and not offend anyone because he knows that many of the critics are just waiting for him to slip up so that they can slit his throat in the media.