The Pence- Harris debate and a divided America
The debate between US Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic challenger Kamala Harris on Wednesday night turned out to be a whole different ballgame from the Donald Trump- Joe Biden face- off that took place eight days earlier.
Unlike Trump, Pence is soft- spoken and unflappable. In contrast to Biden, Harris possesses the confidence of an attractive woman combined with the fangs of a pit- bull prosecutor and the complacency of a left- winger encouraged by the latest polls in her party’s favor.
Another shift was the identity of the moderator. Fox News’s Chris Wallace had lost his cool during the September 29 presidential debate. Though his questions were intelligent, his intolerance with Trump was glaring.
USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page, who moderated the Pence- Harris match, was calm and collected. But her questions belied her political slant toward Harris.
None of the above, however, explains why millions of Americans and others around the world tuned in and stuck around to watch the 90- minute contest, broadcast on all major channels and livestreamed on websites of major news outlets. It is particularly odd, considering that many viewers voiced their boredom on social media, while others spent the duration joking about the fly that landed on Pence’s head.
The truth is that under normal circumstances, vice- presidential debates barely elicit a yawn, let alone pique public curiosity.
This one would have been no exception. But there is nothing ordinary about the current countdown to one of the most dramatic presidential elections in recent history.
The incumbent is a sui generis figure, loved by his champions as passionately as he is loathed by his detractors, while evoking ill ease among those who support his policies but cringe at his tweets and less- than- articulate rhetoric.
To make matters more complicated, the leader of the free world with three Nobel Peace Prize nominations contracted COVID- 19 last week at the height of his campaign to “Keep America Great.” And rather than modify his cavalier attitude to the coronavirus, his response to falling ill was to double down on his assertion that a vaccine is on the way and that the pandemic should not “dominate” Americans’ lives.
FURTHERMORE, AS if his feisty sparring against Biden last Tuesday weren’t controversial enough, his appointment of conservative Catholic Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat of liberal Jewish Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on September 18, sent the Democrats into a tailspin.
That Trump, First Lady Melania and 18 other White House staff members who attended Barrett’s ceremony at the Rose Garden on September 26 came down with the virus only heightened the frenzy.
It also led the Commission on Presidential Debates to agree to the Biden campaign’s request that Harris and Pence be placed 12 feet apart on the debate stage at the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and separated by a Plexiglas partition. It was like a palpable metaphor for the ideological wall dividing die- hard Democrats and their Republican counterparts.
Naturally, the first question Page posed was about the pandemic. Turning to Harris, she said, “The coronavirus is not under control. Over the past week, Johns Hopkins reports that 39 states have had more COVID cases over the past seven days than in the week before. Nine states have set new records. Even if a vaccine is released soon, the next administration will face hard choices. What would a Biden administration do in January and February that a Trump administration wouldn’t do? Would you impose new lockdowns for businesses and schools and hot spots? A federal mandate to wear masks?”
Harris answered by attacking Trump’s handling of the health crisis, which she called the “greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country,” and then by mumbling about a plan that bears an eerie resemblance to the one in place.
She might be excused for not having a viable alternative to Trump’s Operation Warp Speed. The whole world is grappling with the same impossible situation, which will end when most people are vaccinated or after the virus completes its killing spree and vanishes.
Still, her reply to the question of whether Americans, including herself, should take the vaccine if it is approved before or after the election, was beyond the pale.
“If the public health professionals... if the doctors tell us that we should take it, I’ll be the first in line to take it, absolutely. But if Donald Trump tells us that we should take it, I’m not taking it.”
This was one of many petulant contradictions that the veep- hopeful spewed during the political volley, whose nine topics didn’t allow for much delving. It therefore involved the repetition of messages that each candidate wanted and was prepped to convey.
For Pence, the task was relatively easy. He has been loyal to and on the same page with Trump for the past four years. He has clear ideas and a proven record about where the United States needs to be headed, both internally and internationally.
Harris had a tougher mission to accomplish, which is why she spent the entire hour and a half smiling and smirking uncomfortably. In fairness, it is no easy feat to woo centrist voters while simultaneously signaling to fellow radicals that she’s still their gal – to vow both to raise and not to raise taxes, for example, or to oppose and support the Green New Deal simultaneously.
She even got a proverbial knuckle- rap on social media from Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez ( AOC), who was watching her like a hawk throughout the debate.
The admonition came after Pence asserted that a Biden administration would outlaw fracking, and Harris retorted, “The American people know Joe Biden will not ban fracking. That is a fact. That is a fact.”
AOC promptly tweeted: “Fracking bad, actually.”
Luckily, Harris had the chance to redeem herself with AOC and the rest of her cancel- culturalist buddies who reflect the true flavor of today’s Democratic Party. She did this by talking about foreign policy, which she said, in schoolgirl fashion, is simply about “relationships.”
“You can look at the Iran nuclear deal, which now has put us in a position where we are less safe, because they are building up what might end up being a significant nuclear arsenal,” she said. “We were in that deal, guys. We were in the Iran nuclear deal with friends, with allies around the [ world]. And because of Donald Trump’s unilateral approach to foreign policy, coupled with his isolationism, he pulled us out and has made America less safe.... And the thing that has always been part of the strength of our nation, in addition to our great military, has been that we keep our word. But Donald Trump doesn’t understand that, because he doesn’t understand what it means to be honest.”
Pence could hardly keep a straight face at that one.
“Trump kept his word when we moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel,” he reminded the audience. “When Joe Biden was vice president, they promised to do that and they never did. We stood strong with our allies, but we’ve been demanding. NATO is now contributing more to our common defense than ever before thanks to President Trump’s leadership. We’ve strengthened our alliances across the Asia Pacific, and we’ve stood strong against those who would do us harm.”
He also pointed out that the previous administration in Washington “transferred $ 1.8 billion to [ Iran], the leading state sponsor of terrorism.”
He was right, of course, but his list of Trump’s momentous Middle East achievements – in helping allies and penalizing enemies – was incomplete, to put it mildly. It was a shame that he was unable to fit in the long list.
Whether swing voters are swayed these days by anything other than their gut reaction to Trump and Biden or vague perception of economics is not clear. Everyone does realize, though, that whoever wins the election will be the oldest president ever to take the oath of office. In either scenario, then, there is a greater possibility than usual of the vice president’s ending up at the helm.
That’s one aspect of the debate between Pence, 61, and the 55- year- old Harris that made it consequential. Another was its illustration that the choice on November 3 is not between Trump and Biden, but rather between two completely antithetical worldviews. is