The GOP started the VP pre-debate by claiming victory before it even started. With typical Republican bullshit they already printed up their headlines for after the debate. The GOP stooges don’t care what happens in the real world. In their world of Reality TV, Pence had already won and what really happens in the actual debate had nothing to do with what they fervently believe.
Nichole Wallace laid it out for all to see when she admitted that real Republicans would much rather have Pence as their candidate than Trump.
The expectations were that Pence would spend his time attacking Clinton, while Kaine would spend his trying to make Pence defend Trump. Everyone asks, how can Pence can possibly defend Trump when he doesn’t believe in what Trump says. My answer, before the debate was that he wouldn’t try, he would put out his own ideas rather than try to defend Trumps. That’s exactly what happened. Kaine accused Trump of all the things that the fat orange has said and Pence brushed them off almost without comment. It soon became obvious that Pence was debating for a spot in the 2020 election
Kaine opened the debate speaking to why he thought he should have the job as VP and how he was qualified. He said the usual things, listing his credits and speaking about how Hillary had chosen him. Pence did much the same but added a list of where the present administration had gone wrong. In listing those things Pence inadvertently revealed why he would be a disaster as a VP and Trump would be a bigger disaster as president. Pence is against everything that thinking people want for this country. He doesn’t believe in climate change, he is against a woman’s right to choose, the ACA and just about anything that cogent people and non-fascists believe in.
Every time the debate came down to facts, Kane was able to murder Pence but Kaine had one major weakness. He just couldn’t ignore Trump’s failure to show his returns, which Kaine claimed would reveal that he paid no taxes. It was a big mistake because in not paying taxes Trump was following the same law that applies to everyone else. It’s not in avoiding taxes that Trump falls down; it’s in losing almost a billion dollars in one year. For a guy whose only claim to anything is that he is a great businessman it makes him the ultimate loser.
When Pence spoke about America’s failure to protect the people of Aleppo, Kaine should have pointed out, that Pence had lied about our military being weak; that we have the strongest military in the world; that we, not Russia, China or anyone else have the only real fleet, the largest air force and the most military abilities on the planet. That’s not the problem in Syria. The problem in Syria is that no one wants to do anything about it, not the UN, not any of the European nations, no one in the Middle East, all of whom have more skin in the game of what happens in that pathetic country than we do. That’s what Kaine should have said and didn’t. In every other instance, however, Kaine’s logic really beat up Pence’s lies and aversions.
The final result? Well, Pence is a better debater, no question there, but as Chris Matthews said he was playing with a pair of deuces while Kaine had a full house. You can say that Pence won on style but it won’t mean anything unless something happens to make Pence the Presidential candidate. Kaine had all the facts; Pence had prayers. If you are impressed with slick debate style you will have liked Pence but if you wanted to hear the truth, it was Kaine who brought it.
The pundits attacked Kaine for interrupting in the early going but he actually had to, because Pence, if allowed, would have talked non-stop for the whole hour and a half. He never paid any attention to the agreed on time limits and the moderator was far too ineffectual to deal with either of them.
Steve Schmidt, GOP spokesman said it best. Pence could not make up for the fact that he is running with Donald Trump and it was clear, even in a debate in which he did not appear, that Trump is just not Presidential material. Nothing that Pence could say will ever change that.
I think, in the end, what killed Mike Pence, even though he was the more polished debater, was that he lied too much about things that are on tape and therefore provable. This was especially true in his statement about not having said that Putin was a better leader of his country than Obama is of his. That piece of tape will be played ad nauseam all next week and every time it does millions of people will know that Pence is a blatant liar just like his boss.
Finally there are the stances of each in regard to energy and climate change, two hugely important subjects that, as usual, got short shrift at the debates. It’s important to know that each is on an opposite side of both questions.
The League of Conservation Voters rates Kane at 91% and Pence at 4%, a crushingly dramatic difference. Of course there are reasons.
While in congress Pence voted to bar the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases despite the obvious fact that doing so is its principal job. He continually voted to open the Atlantic to offshore drilling. In 2014 he cancelled the an energy efficiency program instituted by his predecessor in the Governor’s seat in Indiana costing the state 18,600 jobs, jobs he blames the Obama administration for losing even as it added 13,000,000 to the job rolls. This was the same year that Indiana was rated second among the 50 states in most greenhouse gas emissions.
In his 2012 run for Governor, Pence received almost a million bucks from the fossil fuel industry and therefore opposes Obama’s Clean Power Plan mainly because the state he runs is the 8th largest coal producer in the country. It’s all about money; screw public health.
Kaine, on the other hand, supports clean power legislation, opposes the Keystone XL and other pipelines, sees natural gas as only a bridge fuel to real clean energy, endorsed the goal of transitioning the country to 25% renewable energy by 2025 and protected 400,000 acres from fossil fuel development in coastal areas. The differences are significant even before we get into abortion and a woman’s right to choose.
Of course while the debate was going on and Mike Pence was trying to defend his undefendable boss, Trump, acting as always, as the biggest asshole in the universe was tweeting about how ugly Tim Kane was. Really? That’s the most significant thing that Donald Trump got out of this debate? That’s pathetic. Especially when you consider that there are despicables that will actually vote for that.