What Went Down During The Vice Presidential Debate

Actually, a whole bunch of mini-takes:

1) It’s not likely to matter much.
2) The bases will be relatively happy.
3) The moderator, Susan Page, needed to follow up more.
4) Pence had a harder record to defend, and so he could lose on substance, even if it’s even on tactics.
5) Pence’s non-answer about respecting election results may be the most newsworthy moment of the night.
6) The fly sitting on Pence’s head for a full 2 minutes may be the most remembered part of the night.

Thanks to the wonderful graphics team at NBC, we were able to get some numbers behind tonight’s civility. Just because the candidates actually let each other speak this time doesn’t mean they missed opportunities to get in some barbs.

I think Harris was effective at criticizing the Trump-Pence record and explaining what she and Biden would do differently. And in turn, I think Pence was an effective counterbalance to Trump’s belligerence last week, with the exception of the question about accepting the results of the election, which is concerning, to put it mildly.