There’s a great line in the film Apollo 13 before the on-board emergency in the space ship. A character refers to the very low TV audience for the coverage of the mission saying:
People at home are finding this as exciting as a day trip to Pittsburgh.
The Clinton/Trump first TV debate was watched by an estimated audience of 83 million, breaking records. It appears that the parallel Vice-Presidential debate was as eagerly awaited as that day trip to Pittsburgh.
I got up to watch it in the early hours of this morning. But then I would probably get up to watch coverage of a day trip to….you get the picture.
Tim Kaine is Clinton’s running mate. He’s a US senator and former two-term governor of Virginia. He came over as a little “over caffeinated” (as one observer remarked) but defended Clinton staunchly.
Mike Pence came over very well. He’s Governor of Indiana and a past US congressman. He’s a former radio host – and that showed. He was calm and looked straight at the camera. He didn’t seem to be overly keen on defending Trump, and it seemed he was more interested in defending the Republican party and promoting Mike Pence.
The exchange seemed quite substantive to me. The protagonists at least seemed grown up and civil to each other.
Once again I turn to Taegan Goddard of the US political website Political Wire for a pithy summing up of the debate:
If you scored the debate on style, Pence probably won narrowly. He looked into the camera and came off as the calmer of the two. I suspect most instant polls will find Pence the winner.
However, Kaine was a much better running mate. He defended the nominee at the top of his ticket. Pence wasn’t willing to do it.
After watching the debate, it’s clear that Kaine is running for vice president in 2016. But Pence sounded more like he’s running for president in 2020.
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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5 Comments
A CBS focus group that represented a demographically balanced cross-section of voters gave it 22-4 to Pence. Fortunately nobody pays the least attention to the VP debate. I think they should follow the example of Admiral Stockdale in 1992 and address the great existential questions. As Stockdale so eloquently mused “Who am I? What am I doing here?”.
Pence may be aiming for 2017, what are the odds against Trump winning than doing a Diane James ?
I thought Tim Kaine was the clear winner of the debate. Mike Pence didn’t defend Donald Trump or attempt to defend him once. Kaine outlined clear proposals whilst Pence wasn’t very clear at all. I do think the Clinton campaign is rattling on about Russia too much and that part of the debate where both candidates sounded like they wanted war with Russia was not good to hear. At this election, the neoconservatives like the Democrats and that’s because Hillary Clinton is a great candidate for them.
Donald Trump should have picked a different running mate. Chris Christie would have been far more suited for this role but Pence is in a potential swing state in Indiana where as Christie in New Jersey is not.
I thought it was a poor debate but that Tim Kaine did what he needed to do in backing his top of the ticket vigorously. However, there were two points in particular where I took issue with Kaine. First would be him indicating that inequality has gone up and he was saying exactly the same things Obama said eight years ago. A Clinton administration will do nothing about it. The leaked tapes where Clinton discusses Sanders’ supporters make pretty clear that Clinton just sees these people as an annoyance rather than wanting to radically overhaul anything of substance. Kaine also said that America will not get involved in countries where it is not necessary or wanted, that is a load of rubbish and has been American foreign policy since WW2.
Finally, Tim Kaine rambling on about Osama Bin Laden being killed and somehow linking it to Clinton or thinking she deserves credit was feeble. As Pence said, the major terrorist threat today is ISIS. Has the Obama administration made this worse? Did Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State make this worse? Those two key questions remain unanswered.
I prefer Tim Kaine but why was he smiling so much and saying how much he loves Hillary? It was a bit weird. I admit, I didn’t see much of it, but like Hillary his constant smiling put me off. I want a serious debate not a beauty competition.
I’d still vote for Hillary and Kaine in November, however their electoral system works.
Pence , the winner if style and measured is your yardstick, Kaine , if substance and content is.
On every answer it was only his pugnatiousness that got a bit too full on, that lessened Kaine in the likeability league. On every answer , Pence was the lesser on detail and sharpness of response.
With one exception, abortion. The answer Pence gave was more principled and therefore more convincing, something left wing authoritarian Democrats do not like , a little like our Labour left , on conscience issues.
Over all, I came away with Kaine and ” if Donald Trump would release his tax returns !” and ” He called Putin a great man !” ringing in my ears a thousand fold !