|
MY FIVE TAKE-AWAYS ON LAST NIGHT'S VP DEBATE
1. The only thing historic about that debate last night was the house-fly that landed on Mike Pence's head.
Wolf Blitzer gushed, right before the debate started, that we were about to witness something "historic." I'm starting to think we shouldn't trust 24-hour news networks when they say that something is "historic"... especially before it even happens. Perhaps we should hall take a deep breath and let historians decide what is historic, not those concerned about TV ratings.
Some argued that this was historic because we had a woman of color running for VP. But unless she is actually elected next month, it is nothing but history repeating itself. This is the fourth time a woman has been on the ticket of a major political party. And so far, the only actual history in this country is that we keep saying "no" to tickets with women on them.
Sometimes history is made because one of the candidates says something revealing... or incredibly stupid... or acts stupid and rude. But according to any of those criteria, it was pretty much 90 minutes of blah-blah-blah.
It was a first, however, for a house-fly to appear in a vice-presidential debate. And it was a big hit. (see images below) And it gave me an idea for the next presidential debate. The last one (between Trump and Biden) was so painful for us to watch that most of us don't want to sit through another. But if both candidates could be placed in cages with about a dozen monkeys each... Think what we would learn about their ability to handle a crisis... or chaos. We would learn first hand how they would handle congress... and the press. Think how informative...
2. The moderator kept trying to get each VP candidate to defend the guy at the top of her or his ticket: a futile exercise.
Pence tried to tell us how smart Trump is... what a sweet guy the president is when no one is looking. But not even Melania was buying it. And Harris tried to tell us that Joe's got a plan for everything that is wrong in the world, surely surprising Joe himself.
The truth is, the primary job of a vice presidential candidate is to do a hatchet job on the other vice-presidential candidate's running mate. But there is simply no need for that this year. Trump does his own hatcheting on Biden. And then Trump goes on twitter and manages to make himself look bad: the equivalent of a hatchet job. With Donald Trump in the race, there is actually nothing for anyone else to do. Really. Trump is doing it all... all by himself.
So far we have learned nothing in the first two debates that we didn't already know. As far as I can tell, the only people who have benefited have been the folks at Saturday Night Live. In fact, they have benefited SO much that they should be required to sponsor the debates from now on.
3. If the debaters are to be believed, neither has given any thought to the fact that they will be a heartbeat away from succeeding the oldest president EVER in American history.
Both Pence and Harris were asked if they have had "the talk" yet with their respective guys. Both of them ignored the question.
As a pastor, I know it is a hard talk to have that talk with your loved ones, particularly if you are in line to inherit something BIG. "You know dear, I hope we both die together in a freak meteor hit... so I won't have to grieve over losing you... but..."
One of these two old guys is about to embark on a four year term to take on one of the most stressful jobs in the world. There is a significant chance that one of the two people we saw on stage last night will become the next president. There is also a significant chance that the 25th amendment to the constitution will need to be invoked... transferring temporary power to the vice president while a president recovers from some sort of illness or accident. Trump is four years younger than Biden, but Biden can probably do more push-ups as Trump is quite obese... and now is susceptible to possible after-effects from Covid-19.
We already have too much chaos in the White House. Therefore... I hope they have the talk soon! Maybe all four of them could be put in a secure room and help each other get through this painful conversation... sort of like group therapy. Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall for that one? (Okay... I can't resist: If you WERE a fly, whose head would most like sit on?)
4. Kamala Harris committed one glaring evasion; Mike Pence pretty much evaded everything.
Kamala Harris refused to say whether she and Joe Biden will "pack the court." If elected, they would be coming into office with a Supreme Court that has a 6-3 conservative majority... and is likely to block everything a Democratic president and congress wish to do. The only remedy would be to expand the court to 13... and then seat four justices who would outvote the conservatives. This would be BIG. And neither Harris nor Biden has addressed that issue.
Mike Pence, on the other hand, didn't really answer any of the questions he was asked. Plus... he went over his time allotment each time in not answering his questions. He was so blatantly evasive and long winded that it seemed useless to have a moderator on stage. The moderator should have just said, "Mr. Vice President, what do you want to talk about next?" That's probably the only way she could have tricked him into actually answering her question.
5. Kamala Harris did a credible job introducing herself to the country; Mike Pence did a credible job laying out the conservative agenda.
This was the first time Americans had a chance to see and hear much of Kamala Harris. She did fine, given the circumstances. And by circumstances, I mean the extreme poison and the chaos that marks our politics right now. For example, a woman on one talk show I listened in on complained that she didn't like Harris's smile. (??!!) How are you to accomplish anything serious with listeners like that?
One person on Facebook (a member of my church in Salem) posted, "Why didn't the moderator ask Harris who she slept with to get that job?" What a pity that I am de-friending my own parishioners in the midst of our democracy's most sacred season. But if I am to love her as her pastor, I can't read any more of her Facebook posts.
(Christian idiocy is a whole other diary entry!)
As for Pence, he did what he had to do. He needed to balance Trump's bad-boy personae. He needed to tick off conservative talking points. He needed to disagree with every negative suggestion and innuendo directed toward his administration. And he needed to make sure that Donald Trump had a satisfying TV experience last night. And on those points, he did well.
Was anyone inspired or persuaded from last night's debate? Not me. Were you?
| 
