What Went Down During The Vice Presidential Debate

ABC commentators mentioning that pinkeye can be an early sign of COVID-19, but, of course, nobody can diagnose illness over the TV.

After last week’s disaster, that was kind of a nice time warp back to 2004 or so. Pence and Harris both got a little testy, but no more than a usual debate. Pence really stayed focused on a few topics, including insisting that Biden would raise taxes and ban fracking. Harris started really strong by landing a lot of punches on the coronavirus, but she also didn’t have great answers on court packing or foreign policy. Ultimately, those topics either don’t matter much to the American people, or the public has already made their minds up on them. So I didn’t see anything tonight that would change the trajectory of the race.

Well, I was right that the volume would be lower than last time. But even though the responses were delivered more quietly, some of the fundamentals were kind of the same. Harris and Pence both dodged a lot of questions, accused each other of lying, and a lot of questionable things about policy were said, albeit in a more civil way. I’m especially struck by Pence’s refusal to commit to to a peaceful transfer of power. That was … noteworthy.