Last Night's Debate

A half hour into the debate, I posted to Facebook that if you were taking a shot every time Vance lied, you better call an ambulance. In my mind, the only thing he said that rang true to me was when Vance said that he hadn’t known Tim Walz’s son had witnessed a shooting, and he was sorry that had happened. Everything else? Lies and damn lies.

I watched the debate not as the partisan, decided voter I am, but as an undecided voter. And I was concerned, because Vance is so damn polished. I suspect the polls will call it a draw, and the pundits will call it a Vance win. Because style trumps substance.

Walz seemed uncomfortable and out of place. He seemed to lack the confidence he displays on the campaign trail. He missed several opportunities. For example, he should have told Vance that he should have taken a government course at Yale, because saying “the Harris administration” means Vance doesn’t understand the role of a vice president.

On guns, abortion, housing, health care and all other issues, Walz had his facts correct and mostly got those points across. The delivery, however, left a lot to be desired.

None of this is going to matter, however. Most people didn’t watch the debate: they’ll watch the clips. The biggest will be when Walz decimated Vance by getting him to punt on who won the 2020 election. Stunning and perfect. Especially when he pointed out that JD was on the stage because Mike Pence wouldn’t do Trump’s bidding.

Another clip, that should be made into an ad, is when Vance claimed he never called for a national abortion ban, but hey! there’s tape from when he did.

The other thing that was offensive to me was that no matter what he was asked, Vance blamed undocumented immigrants. For gun deaths, even for the housing crisis. Throughout the day, the fact checkers will be out with their information, and it won’t go well for the shillbilly.

I suspect that despite any polling, the undecideds will come around and see the abortion ban lie, the fact that Vance’s only point was to lie about undocumented immigrants, and especially his refusal to deny that Trump lost in 2020, as disqualifying.

In the end, I believe that this will help the Harris-Walz ticket in the ballot box, where it matters.

The moderators were far below the caliber of David Muir and Linsey Davis, but did do one fact check which, humorously, got Vance to indignantly complain that they promised not to fact check.

All in all, it was the closest we’ve come this cycle to a real debate. In yesterday’s poll 67% of you said you’d never debated. It is much harder than it looks. Especially in this case where the candidates couldn’t bring notes with them. That’s helpful if you can refer to “on such and such a date, you said this, or you did this”. You need to know your facts, which Walz did and Vance didn’t, and you need to be forceful in your delivery, which Vance did, and Walz didn’t, except for the Jan 6th part at the very end.

For me, as a partisan, I wanted to see Walz as someone who could deliver zinger lines, call Vance “weird”, find a way to say “mind your own damn business” and ZING. But he’s decent, he took the assignment of “above all, do no harm” to heart, and did the best he could. It’s telling that after the debate, Vance went to the spin room, and Tim and Gwen Walz went out to get a slice at a local pizza joint.