See how they run ( away from questions)

Americans can be grateful that Wednesday night’s vice presidential debate was significantly more civil and substantive than the raucous presidential debate in which President Trump blew through time limits, tried to knock Joe Biden off balance with frequent interruptions and generally raised questions about whether these encounters are worth having.

The vice presidential debate was an improvement, though less than perfect.

At times the polished and composed Vice President Mike Pence tried to speak over Sen. Kamala Harris. But former prosecutor Harris was prepared: “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking,” was her rejoinder — and one could sense the gender gap widening further as women across America recognized a mansplaining dynamic they’ve seen throughout their lives.

Pence also stretched the time limits more than Harris — though not nearly as egregiously as Trump in Debate One — but moderator Susan Page readily called him out when he did.

So Americans can be reassured that debates to choose their national leaders

can be orderly and avoid global embarrassment. But rare is the political debate at any level that isn’t afflicted with the talkingpoints syndrome: When an uncomfortable question arises, the candidate slips into his or her prefabricated answers that have little or nothing to do with the question that was asked.

Pence was the guiltier of the two in both the number and importance of the questions he ducked.

Page asked the antiabortion Pence a very relevant question about what his home state of Indiana would do if the U. S. Supreme Court were to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision on abortion rights, a plausible scenario if Trump appointee Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed. He went on a riff about Barrett’s qualifications and his hope that she would not be attacked for her Christian faith. He did not engage the question.

Even more unsettling was Pence’s evasion of a question on what may be the most consequential issue facing American democracy in generations: the president’s steadfast unwillingness to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if Biden were declared the winner. “What would be your role and responsibility as vice president?” Page asked Pence. “What would you personally do?”

The vice president was given a perfect chance to reassure the nation of his fidelity to the oath he took to uphold the Constitution and to accept the verdict of the voters, no matter which way it goes. Instead, he deflected and dismissed a serious question, insisting “I think we’re going to win this election” and accusing Democrats of spending “the last 3 ½ years trying to overturn the results of the last election.”

At this moment of peril, when the president is trying mightily to delegitimize any result other than his reelection — telling the rightwing extremist Proud Boys to “stand by” — Pence’s unwillingness to make a clear statement of his commitment to a peaceful transition is not just any political dodge. It is dangerous.

Nor would the vice president, chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, engage on a question about the Sept. 26 Rose Garden Supreme Court ceremony that is now considered a superspreader event with a mostly maskless crowd of VIPs. He instead talked about he and the president trusting “the American people to make choices” instead of issuing mandates.

Harris had her own episode of equivocation when Pence tried to pin her down on whether she and Biden were “going to pack the Supreme Court to get your way” if “somehow you win this election.”

Biden has been ducking the issue at the presidential debate and at every stop since, and Harris is much too disciplined to take the bait. It’s a legitimate question, but it’s the ultimate nowin issue for the Democratic ticket: If Biden or Harris deny any intent to expand the ninemember court, they will disappoint progressives who are determined to counterbalance the GOP power plays; if they say they will, they will energize Trump’s conservative base and potentially alienate centrists who are otherwise leaning toward Biden.

“I just want the record to reflect she never answered the question,” Pence said, oblivious to the irony of him having just sidestepped a question on how the Trump administration will protect coverage for preexisting conditions if Obamacare is struck down by the Supreme Court.

In the various debates I’ve moderated ( including Harris’ first broadcast debate in December 2003 against incumbent District Attorney Terence Hallinan), I’ve always asked for the prerogative to call out and follow up nonanswers. Voters would be well served if that was the rule in these nationally televised encounters.