Kamala Harris did not need to dazzle
In a race slipping further away from the Republicans with every new poll, Vice-President Mike Pence had an impossible challenge debating Sen. Kamala Harris: to win dramatically and decisively. He did not.
Pence offered a listless defence of Donald Trump, borrowing the president's tactics by dodging questions, making false accusations, distorting facts, and talking and talking. Pence didn't interrupt as much as ignore the beleaguered moderator's repeated pleas for him to stop.
It was not the debacle between Trump and Joe Biden last week. This debate was calm and civilized, even a return to normalcy.
Yet vice-presidential debates matter even less than presidential debates, and this one won't move public opinion as much as solidify it. That's bad for Trump, who needs a narrative other than his mishandling of the pandemic.
It may be that Wednesday's debate was the last opportunity for the Republicans to change the channel. If Trump will not, or cannot, attend the next two scheduled debates, at least one of which, we learned Thursday, will be held virtually, it will hurt him. Trump will miss a last chance to confront Biden directly, hoping to goad him into a gaffe or a fit of distemper.
If Trump doesn't debate, the beneficiary will be Biden, who is not a strong debater and can only lose, as the front-runner, in appearing with Trump. Still, having vowed that he won't debate virtually, Trump may well change his mind.
For his part, Pence remained true to himself on Wednesday. Silky and pious, his manner was made more for radio than television, which caught the grimaces and frowns of a man as exciting as an undertaker, who calls his wife “mother.”
On COVID-19, jobs, taxes and climate change, Pence uttered the greatest of falsehoods with the greatest of authority. He declined to answer questions and pivoted to other issues, presenting himself as a wholesome, observant Christian and patriot who refuses, like Trump, to promise to honour the results of the election.
Four years ago, as governor of Indiana, Pence begged Trump to join the ticket.
Pence hasn't minded humiliating himself as Trump's lawn ornament if it promised him a shot at the top job. In his loyalty to the president, he hopes to hold the base of his party if it loses badly next month. His eye is on the prize.
He may get there sooner than we think. If Trump loses, some speculate he will resign the presidency in early January, allowing Pence to succeed him until Biden's inauguration. Trump would ask Pence to use his power as president, if only briefly, to pardon him and his family, against charges such as obstruction of justice arising from his impeachment (but not conviction).
The challenge for Harris was to do no harm. She was unflappable as Pence talked over her, as some men often do to women on public platforms. His casual disdain is one reason women are flocking to the Democrats, creating what pollsters call a “historic” gender gap.
Harris was steady and straight. She made history as the first Black woman vice-presidential nominee and showed beyond doubt that she has the intellect and character to be president. Did she dazzle with witty repartee? Rarely. Did she eviscerate Pence? Not really.
That didn't matter, though.
She deferred often to Biden, calling him “Joe,” presumably to humanize him. She introduced herself again to Americans, revisiting her credentials as prosecutor and senator.
She played her campaign's greatest hits: Trump's failure to pay taxes, his tax cuts favouring the wealthy, the assault on Obamacare and access to abortion. And most effectively, she skewered the administration's “incompetence” on the pandemic.
The debate took place in a campaign so unpredictable that the Democrats are now making a serious play for Texas. No Democrat has carried that state since Jimmy Carter in 1976 but if the party wins there early, Democrats hope to prevent Trump from challenging the outcome in other states.
Texas may be wishful thinking, but winning North Carolina, Iowa, Florida and Arizona, where the Democrats now lead — as well as reclaiming the three states of the upper Midwest they lost in 2016 — is not.
Whatever the outcome, expect to see Pence and Harris debate again, this time for the presidency, in 2024.