Analysis: Hits And Misses From The Vice Presidential Debate

It was a far extra civil affair than last week’s debacle between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

I watched, tweeted and took notes. Under, my ideas on the perfect and the worst from the evening that was.

* Kamala Harris: The California senator’s greatest 15 minutes of the debate have been the primary 15 minutes of the talk. Helped by the give attention to Covid-19 — and the Trump administration’s botched dealing with of the pandemic, Harris crushed Pence with the document of the administration he is part of. “They knew they usually coated it up,” she mentioned of Trump’s admission that he purposely downplayed the severity of the virus. Harris was much less sturdy in defending Biden’s document — particularly Pence’s repeated assaults on Biden’s supposed assertion that he would repeal all the Trump tax cuts and finish fracking. (Harris mentioned Biden would guarantee taxes wouldn’t go up on anybody making less than $400,000 and insisted, repeatedly, that Biden wouldn’t ban fracking.) And her dodge of a query on whether or not a Biden administration would add seats to the Supreme Court docket was a miss. Total, nonetheless, I feel Harris did what a superb VP ought to do — she slammed Trump, notably on Covid-19, and stored the main focus largely on the present administration. She did so with a peaceful, cool and picked up demeanor; when Pence interrupted, she used silence and a stare — usually simpler than any phrases. And her “Mr. Vice President, I’m talking” line goes to be one to recollect for Democrats.

* Mike Pence, on offense: The vice chairman is a really stable (and underrated) debater. His greatest moments on Wednesday evening got here when he was prosecuting the previous statements of each Biden and Harris — on taxes, on fracking, on the Inexperienced New Deal, on China. It is tougher than you would possibly assume to weave opposition analysis dumps into a solution in a debate with out it wanting completely compelled. Pence is superb at it. And looking out on the debate solely via the lens of Pence’s political future being tied to defending, with no quarter given, the document of Donald Trump, he acquitted himself properly.

* Susan Web page’s questions: Sure, the moderator took a number of warmth for her lack of ability to rein in Pence when he stored speaking past the time restrict. (Extra on that under.) However when you return and hearken to (or learn) her questions, they have been excellent. Pointed, considerate and, sadly, largely unanswered.

* The fly: Look, say what you’ll in regards to the media specializing in the unimportant stuff. However there was a rattling fly on Pence’s hair for two stable minutes! (This isn’t an exaggeration; it was actually two minutes.) Has a fly ever obtained extra publicity? Heck, Biden even despatched out a fly fundraising appeal whereas the talk was nonetheless happening! Additionally, when you do not assume this debate can be remembered because the “fly debate,” effectively then, please permit me to introduce you to politics.

* Twitter: I’ve a love/hate relationship with the social media platform, nevertheless it actually is at its greatest on huge political nights like this. Humorous and insightful, with snark sprinkled on high and simply the correct amount of imply baked in there, too.

MISSES

* Mike Pence, on protection: It’s a herculean process to attempt to defend Trump’s actions (and inactions) on the coronavirus pandemic. That was the job earlier than Pence on Wednesday evening and, not surprisingly, he got here up quick. Pence glossed over Trump’s repeated skepticism of confirmed mitigation methods — mask-wearing, social distancing, avoiding massive crowds — and as an alternative tried to make your complete dialog about particular person freedom. The factor about particular person freedom is that you’re not free to do issues that impinge on others’ well being and security. Mitigating Covid-19 is not about people’ freedom, it is about collective motion. Trump’s lack of ability to know that’s indefensible — and Pence was not in a position to defend it.

* Susan Web page’s refereeing: Within the precise give-and-take of the talk, Web page, the USA At present Washington bureau chief, struggled considerably. Essentially the most obvious difficulty was that she merely couldn’t get both candidate to reply the questions requested of them. I misplaced depend of what number of occasions Harris and Pence brazenly ignored the query Web page requested to offer what was, oftentimes, a rehearsed speech. (Essentially the most obvious instance was when Harris took a Web page query about Biden’s age and whether or not they had talked about the opportunity of transferring presidential energy and spent two minutes simply strolling folks via her life story.) The opposite drawback with how Web page dealt with the talk was that she was merely unable to maintain Pence from going means over his allotted time. She tried gamely, nevertheless it turned clear fairly early on that her “Mr. Vice President” interjection wasn’t stopping the Pence practice. She ought to have tried one other tactic. And naturally, slicing off candidates’ mics once they go over the agreed-upon time to reply questions is the actual answer right here — which is within the arms of the campaigns and the Commission on Presidential Debates, not Web page.

* Donald Trump/Joe Biden: Each Pence and Harris have been extra substantive and simpler than both of the lads who’re main their respective tickets. Sure, Trump made it unattainable to have a debate with any form of guidelines or decorum, however when Biden bought his probabilities in final week’s debate, he was decidedly mediocre. Like them or hate them, Pence and Harris proved they’re each higher debaters than their ticket mates on Wednesday evening.

* Plexiglass: The dividers preserving the candidates from respiratory on one another have been all the craze of the pre-debate protection. And but they have been barely ever proven on display. Oh, and in addition: Every infectious disease expert said they were totally pointless.

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