I chose to ignore the debate but, unfortunately, heard the highlights on
Democracy Now yesterday, I thought it was disgusting. It was a show that
contributed nothing to anyone's understanding of the real issues in this
election.
Miriam
Truthdig
You Call That a Debate?
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/you_call_that_a_debate_20161005/
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Posted on Oct 5, 2016
By Michael Winship / Moyers &
Company(http://billmoyers.com/story/you-call-that-a-vice-president-debate/)
Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Mike Pence, left, and Democratic
vice presidential nominee Sen. Tim Kaine shake hands after their debate.
(Joe Raedle /
AP(http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Campaign-2016-VP-Debate/f54634196e
834c2bb5c5e9911f604de3/9/0) )
Well, that was depressing.
Not because Vice Presidential Candidate X beat Vice Presidential Candidate Y
in Tuesday night's debate. Or vice versa.
READ:Tim Kaine Puts Mike Pence on the Defensive as Candidates Take on
Issues, Each
Other(http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/the_vice_presidential_deba
te_in_which_two_candidates_try_to_stand_20161004)
No, it was dispiriting because it so vividly displayed the problem with our
current system of debates. This is no way to run a democracy.
If last week's Donald Trump free-for-all, freefall debate performance was
one extreme - out of control and fact-resistant - this week's vice
presidential event showed another, a demonstration of the perils of being
overcoached and overprepared with stock, canned answers repeated ad nauseum
and infinitum.
So there was Republican Mike Pence stolidly behaving like a real-life
version of Sam the Eagle from the
Muppets(http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Sam_the_Eagle) , shaking his head and
bemoaning the fate of an America ruled by Hillary Clinton, and Tim Kaine as
the overeager puppy eager to make his presence known, apparently told that
the way to dispel the image some may have of him as too soft and nice is to
keep interrupting; in effect, chewing the other guy's new slippers.
Kaine may have started it, but in truth, the interruptions by each of the
two were, as Rachel Maddow said on MSNBC, "maddening to the point of
incomprehensibility." The hectoring crosstalk did diminish some as the night
wore on but it wasn't conducive to any real dialogue or thoughtful
discussion of the issues (the exchange on abortion at the end actually came
somewhat close, thanks to Kaine).
READ:Hillary Clinton Lets Donald Trump Be Trump in First Presidential
Debate(http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/live_blog_the_first_2016_preside
ntial_debate_20160926)
And once again there was no talk of climate change or income inequality or
education or infrastructure or healthcare, to name but a few of the topics
that desperately need to be addressed. Instead, we got Pence running
contrary to his running mate's embrace of Vladimir Putin, calling the
Russian leader "small and bullying" and Kaine repeatedly going after Pence
for Donald Trump's refusal to release his tax returns. No one would mistake
Monday's slapfest as a celebration of the Federalist Papers.
If, as many have suggested, the Clinton-Kaine campaign's strategy was to put
Pence on the defensive, denying that Trump has said a basket of deplorable
things we all know he has said, then the evening may ultimately belong to
them. We won't know for sure until we see the impact, if any, of the fact
checking that will appear over the next few days as Pence's denials are
thrown up against the videotape of Trump declaring exactly what Pence
claimed he didn't. Those facts certainly won't change the magical thinking
of the Trump-Pence base; perhaps it will affect the undecideds on the fence.
Rating by onstage performance and the response of the pundit class, Pence's
icy calm may have won out over Kaine's hyper champing at the bit, and the
Republican governor certainly has deftly positioned himself for 2020. But as
Mark Twain said of Richard Wagner's operas, Kaine's attacks may have been
better than they sound.
We'll see. What's for sure is that the clear losers were any Americans who
hoped to hear something, anything, of real substance. Days to go: 33, and
the republic is still adrift, with no sign of the lifeboats.
Michael Winship is the Emmy Award-winning senior writer of Moyers & Company
and BillMoyers.com, and a former senior writing fellow at the policy and
advocacy group Demos. Follow him on Twitter at
@MichaelWinship(https://twitter.com/MichaelWinship?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7C
twcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor) .
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