Obama says let Biden be Biden – while Ryan looks ‘pumped up’ for debate

>> we're delighted to welcome dr. james peterson , a contributor to the griow.com and in kentucky, site of the debate itself, tamron hall , host of "news nation." we're just hours away from the debate. you just heard the president there, should joe just be joe ? because sometimes that works, and other times there are unintended consequences.

>> well, you know what, martin? both of us love music and i know you are a hip-hop artist in your own mind. the bottom line is eminem says i am whatever you say i am. joe biden should always be joe biden . no one can ever beat you at your own game. my mother, a southern mama, used to tell me all the time it's only when you try to be someone else that you fail. and that is the accusation against governor romney. that is perhaps why friends of mine who are conservatives don't totally buy into mitt romney . you may make mistakes being yourself, but that you a then tisity that is needed, that is palpable, that can be felt through a television screen, it has to come from you being you. so i marvel at the fact that someone with joe biden 's experience, someone like joe biden who has been in debates and won many debates, is being given advice to be himself. no one can ever beat you when you are yourself. so if that is the advice, he should certainly take it.

>> can i ask you to refix your microphone because when you were speaking it was jumping and jumbling against your cheek and our viewers are not as able to hear you as clearly as they'd like.

>> they gave christmas e matthews the good mike.

>> this is a 62-year-old veteran versus the 42-year-old young gun. ryan is expected to take joe biden to the cleaners according to the pew poll.

>> i'm a little confused by the poll but i don't want to sound like folk who don't believe in the polls. obviously it's based on some kind of statistical fftion they found. i would agree with tamron of course joe has to be joe . i would quibble with the extent he's had these blunders. some of these things i wouldn't count as the same kind of gaffes or blunders as we've seen from political candidates. his one blunter of being sometimes a little too enfouss a tick will play well because the stage has been set here for this campaign to make a really, you know, sort of powerful haymaker. so biden is the best person to be at-bat right now.

>> tamron , i want to show you some images of paul ryan . i hope you will be able to see these. these are from a "time" magazine photo shoot in december of last year that were just published today and they have taken on a life of their own. this photo started floating around facebook and twitter after people commented how the photos made him look like a cast member of the 1990s show " saved by the bell " and our own team drew the line between ryan and the character goober from "the andy griffith show ." i guess image management will be paramount for paul ryan because he's not as well-known, is he, as the vice president?

>> he is not, martin, and there are some people who think the release of these photographs is some conspiracy. we've heard so many alleged conspiracies related from the jobs numbers to whatever else you can imagine, the moderator. some people will see this as bad timing. i think there would be no good time to have pictures like that released. i mean, i know he works out and he enjoys it and bless him for getting in the gym. it looks like it's paying off, but i don't think that anyone should ever pose for pictures like that.

>> you don't like to see the guy's guns? you don't like to see him inviting a photographer in and showing off his physique.

>> if his guns get you going, that's on you. but for me and mine, i don't want to get in your fantasies or your head, but the bottom line for me, i know if that was a female politician and we'd had these situations before where women are posed in these kinds of things, that they're looked down on, they have no credibility, he's in the gym, he's pumping up, if this were perhaps a men's fitness magazine, maybe, i don't know. erin shock did it, but this is "time," this is supposed to be the man of the year. he has to have more things to be proud of than the fact he pumps a little iron. good for him but it's not for me and my money.

>> i'm really curious as to what circumstances were -- under what circumstances was he taking these pictures. what are they for? tamron is right. pictures like this for a woman politician would -- we wouldn't be talking about conspiracies. we'd be talking about the fact her credibility was undermined. so i think for the ryan camp, they have to be very, very careful here because their image is very malleable right now because it has not been established either through his political career or through this particular campaign and that's why you're getting the kind of jokes you're getting around these images. what was he taking them for anyway?

>> vanity.

>> they're not racy. i don't want to go too far. it's not like this is some racy magazine, but give --

>> we're not suggesting that.

>> given his youth and the fact he's not well-known. i know at the time the pictures were taken he did not know he would be picked as the vice presidential candidate --

>> he was a seven-term congressman.

>> as a congressman still.

>> absolutely. and somebody with ambition. so i think, you know, there's some maybe -- i think in your world they call them glamour shots in the uk. might need to leave them to the glamour models .

>> enough abuse about the british, cameron. thank you very much. dr. james peterson in view