“I think it deserves to be laughed at. I think it deserves our scorn, and I think they should be ashamed of themselves.”

-- Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, head of the Democratic Governor’s Association, talking to reporters after the vice presidential debate, explaining that Vice President Joe Biden was right to laugh and jeer at Rep. Paul Ryan’s fiscal plan, which O’Malley called “crap.”

President Obama’s top political advisor, David Axelrod, jumped in and took over debate preparations for Vice President Joe Biden, according to a senior Democratic source who told FOX News colleague Ed Henry that Biden was “all over the place” in his early practice sessions.

Based on Biden’s performance, one wonders what Axelrod brought to the process. Perhaps a DVD of “The Shining.”

Biden’s cackling and grinning and constant interruptions have been compared to then-Vice President Al Gore’s sighs during a 2000 debate with George W. Bush. But while Gore’s sighs were passively aggressive, Biden was just plain old aggressive, rude even.

Power Play warned on Thursday of the dangers of Biden swinging too hard in an effort to undo the shellacking Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney delivered to President Obama last week and Biden certainly fell into the trap.

Biden was trying to come across as a man bemused, an old campaigner who just had to laugh at the little whippersnapper who was spouting nonsense. Instead, Biden came across as an angry man who gave no fair hearing to his challenger and refused to listen.

Ryan was deferential to a fault, giving the 69-year-old incumbent a wide berth and speaking quietly and respectfully. But Biden showed no generosity to the younger man, and instead was dripping with mockery and scorn.

Rather than appearing genial and avuncular, as he obviously intended to be, Biden appeared angry and at times a bit unhinged. Rather than seeming humorously indulgent of youth, he seemed graceless.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/12/biden-embraces-democratic-dark-side/#ixzz299KDpMD2