Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine took these words to heart in the debate Tuesday evening at Longwood University in Farmville, Va. He was so prepared that he couldn’t wait to deliver it all to Mike Pence, his Republican opponent.
Kaine’s preparation may have been the cause for his repeated interruptions, taking Pence to task as he sought to defend what many pundits feel are the indefensible Trump policies.
No moment illustrated Kaine’s feisty attack more than his long spiel, a fusillade on Trump’s admiration for such dictators as the leaders of Russia and North Korea. “He loves dictators,” Kaine charged. “He’s got kind of a personal Mount Rushmore.”
After the torrent of words, Pence, whose demeanor was in striking contrast to Kaine’s freneticism, asked, “Did you work on that one a long time?”
“Let’s see if you can defend any of it,” Kaine retorted.
As was his general style to Kaine’s assertions, Pence was noncommittal.
Although there’s no way to be certain, it did appear that the Clinton camp had given Kaine his marching orders, an arsenal of deliberation that was uncharacteristic of his usual laid-back, contemplative manner. It kept Pence on the defensive and sometimes at a loss and stammering to bolster his running mate’s positions on immigration, women, policing and foreign affairs.
Whether any of their blather moves the needle one way or the other—and the first salvo from the pundits gives the debate to Pence—is to be seen as Clinton and Trump get ready to rumble again next Tuesday at Washington University in St. Louis.
Both vice presidential candidates can exhale, and they should be glad that there was only one contest between them.
And this relief should be particularly true for Pence who, for the most part, spent the entire 90 minutes dodging and deflecting Kaine’s political darts.
The real winner of the debate is the American public that, thankfully, won’t have to endure another evening of absolute ho-hum and hokum.