What Went Down During The Vice Presidential Debate

Yeah, Meredith, it’s hard to predict how viewers will receive Harris’s performance tonight. She’s being very assertive about her time and has interrupted Pence several times to correct him. It’s a good reminder of how debates can be a double-edged sword for female candidates. She could be criticized for not being aggressive enough, because that’s a (generally male) trait associated with politicians; or for being too aggressive because that’s not what we expect from women. Honestly there’s kind of no way for her to win.

The rehearsed lines just make me wish the moderation were stronger and actually elicited real responses. It’s terrible interviewing politicians because of this very kind of rehearsal.

The gloves are starting to come off … sort of. NBC’s attacks and interruption tracker showing that it’s getting more tense on stage, though obviously this is still nothing compared to last week