WOOKIE STOMP!
Unlike last week’s WWE cage match, tonight’s Vice Presidential debate was for the most part a lesson in civility. It was also one of the most stark studies in contrast that I have ever seen.
This was clearly Kamala Harris’s night. But then again, those of us who knew what was coming never expected anything else. Because there were actually two different audiences tuning in to the debate tonight. Kamala Harris spoke, mostly uninterrupted, to the American people. And Vice President Mike Pence spoke solely and exclus8ively to only one man, President Donald trump.
Kamala Harris ruled the night. She had a clear grasp of every single topic that was introduced tonight, and spoke eloquently and clearly to the actual topic. I just finished watching the debate, and am having a hard time recalling a single instance, no matter what the topic was, in which Mike Pence didn’t invoke the holy name of “President Trump.’ Even now, with Glorious Bleater down by double digits in the aggregate of national polls, and losing every single battleground state, including states that shouldn’t even be on the map. Pence played to Trump.
Mike Pence had only one game plan for the debate. And that was the same as every Trump cabinet member who has appeared in front of a Democratic House committee. To filibuster and run out the clock. Each candidate had two minutes to answer the question asked, uninterrupted. And yet, I failed to find a single question that was asked of Pence in which he didn’t overextend the time limit by at least 35 seconds, and several times by more than a minute. He desperately wanted to shorten the debate in order to shorten his exposure.
Harris regularly took Pence over the falls on the issues. She almost magically managed to turn a question about Trump’s coronavirus experience into a segue into how he had only paid $750 a year in taxes. Pence was powerless.
But Harris did her worst, and most effective damage on the subject of the filling of Justice Ginsberg’s seat on the Supreme Court. Pence, in his pompous, cornfed Indiana way, responded to the question with a numbers filled history of the last 200 years of filling seats in the Supreme Court. To which Kamala Harris smiled, took a deep breath, and said something akin to, You want to talk about history? Fine let’s talk about history. In 1864, Abraham Lincoln was the president, and a seat became open on the Supreme Court 27 days before the election. And what did Lincoln do? He said “No. We will wait for the election, and let the people decide who should name the next justice.” It was s stone cold slap down, for which Pence had no possible answer.
And one more thing to take note of. Pence, although not as blatantly obnoxious as Trump last week. Still managed to carry the Trump freak flag of misogyny high. Pence not only repeatedly ran over Harris, but he also repeatedly ran over time, ignoring moderator Susan Page’s requests for him to finish up, but just kept yammering on. At one point, Page reminded him that she was there to moderate the debate, something he completely ignored, and continued talking over her. If Trump was counting on Pence to woo back suburban white women, good luck with that.
I don’t know whether the performance tonight moved the needle much in either direction, but I will leave you with this final thought. Immediately following the conclusion of the debate, conservative GOP Never Trumper Bill Kristol took to Twitter to announce that Kamala Harris had won the debate. But he gave second place to the fly that had repeatedly settled in Pence’s hair all night long, relegating Pence to third place. I can’t do any better than that.
Follow ne ion Twitter at @RealMurfster35
The whole time I was imagining she viewed the American voters like a jury. She was summing up her case knowing she has jurors 1-7, they have 9-12, and the only person left to make up their mind is this one juror. She was careful not to piss them off, while not being afraid to hit hard.
The moment we all noticed that resonated was “they’re coming for you.” Very striking.
I agree that Kamala won. I agree that the fly came in second.
And we can all agree that Pence did Trump no favors.
To quote an old Whitney Houston song, Kamala was the Queen of The Night.
The fly finished ahead of chalkula cuz he promised to locate all fetid material normally smelling like shit & found in a swamp. He delivered. His silence was deafening as counterpoint to the talking babblehead he was parked on. I rate the fly as a 10. Since the sniveling talking chalk didn’t answer a single question, he gets a 0. Mommy’s calling mikey. Time for flagellation & repentance.
I resented Pence’s continual gratuitous use of the moderator’s first name.
I agree that Pence’s audience was Trump and Trump alone.
Pence’s faux concern before the pivot is sickening.
Pence’s repeated recitation of right-wing propaganda is old and tiresome.
Just a guess but it sounds like you’re saying Pence blew it with his boss’ blessing.
Pence did what his boss wanted. Again, he refused to say he would accept the results of the election. Kamala was talking to us…pence was performing for his master. Wonder if chaukula ate that poor fly in the spirit of renfield going mad.
I think Pence did exactly what Trump did, only nicer and calmer.