I have to agree with Jim Messina, campaign manager for President Obama re-election team: If the other side’s major gripe is about your guy’s facial expressions and manners, then you know you won a debate on the issues.

In my view – and you can take it for whatever it’s worth – Vice President Joe Biden cleaned Republican VP nominee Paul Ryan’s clock the other night in their only debate. Did I like Biden’s constant snickering and occasional guffaws? Not really. But that’s not how you should measure these events. Yes, the administration has some explaining to do regarding the tragic security lapse at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where four diplomats died recently in an attack on the compound. But on issue after issue, the vice president was in command and on the attack.

Which brings us to the next debate, set for Tuesday in Long Island, N.Y., between President Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney.

Yes, Biden teed it up for the president. Now it’s up to Obama – if you’ll pardon the mixed metaphor – to hit it out of the park. The pressure is going to be immense on the president to follow up on the vice president’s fire-and-brimstone performance.

And for Romney? He’s read all the media accounts along with the rest of us. He’ll have to be ready to counter whatever the president throws at him. I’m guessing he’ll be prepared too.

Quick historical note …

The 1960 televised debates between Sen. John Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon started out with a relative whimper, with Kennedy “winning” on style points – not to mention superior makeup. The subsequent encounters got testier. Few of us talk these days about the follow-up contests between these guys. They both were aggressive and in each other’s faces.

I think history is going to repeat itself as we head down the stretch.