We all know vice presidential debates rarely move the public opinion needle.
In 2020 Donald Trump was thrown out of office by a record 81 million voters because he was Donald Trump, not because a fly took up residence on Mike Pence’s head. In 1988 the senior George Bush won 53.4 percent of the popular vote – we haven’t seen a percentage that high in all the years since – despite the fact that his understudy, Dan Quayle, was roundly mocked in the veep debate as a callow lightweight.
So it’s highly unlikely this week’s VP debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance will reshape the 2024 campaign. Vance’s goal was to sheath his claws, hide his MAGA zealotry, and ooze calculated compassion – whereas Walz’s goal was to soft-pedal his progressivism and stress bipartisanship. Vance never brought up his summertime lie that National Guardsman Walz chickened out of Iraq. And Walz never mentioned Vance’s “childless cat lady” weirdness.
Walz, in “Minnesota Nice” mode, never mentioned Vance’s “childless cat lady” weirdness and didn’t assail him for being a slick serial-lying extremist. That is until the debate clock was set to expire, when we got a moment that’s already become a viral sensation.
Four years ago, Vance refused to accept Joe Biden’s election victory. That made him fair game for a question from the moderators whether he would again seek to challenge this year’s election results, even if every governor certifies the results.
Vance’s instinct was to slip-slide away: “I think we’re focused on the future.” He never answered that crucial question. Instead, he claimed Trump called on supporters to “protest peacefully” on January 6th at the U.S.Capitol and “peacefully gave over power on January the 20th, as we have done for 250 years in this country.”
Trump “peacefully gave over power”? Need we bother to annotate Vance’s lies and diversionary drivel? Like the fact 62 judges, including Trump appointees, said there were not “problems” with the balloting. Like the fact Trump’s own cybersecurity chief and his own attorney general said the balloting was secure. Like the fact Trump goaded his thugs to attack the Capitol and then watched it on TV for hours while people died and more than 100 cops were beaten.
Joe Biden became president on Jan. 20th only because Trump’s violent putsch failed.
Over to you, Tim Walz: “January 6 (was) the first time in American history that a president or anyone tried to overturn a fair election and the peaceful transfer of power. And here we are four years later in the same boat…This was a threat to our democracy in a way that we had not seen. And it manifested itself because of Donald Trump’s inability to say – he is still saying – he didn’t lose the election.”
He then posed a simple question to Vance: “Did he lose the 2020 election?”
Vance: “Tim, I’m focused on the future.”
Walz: “That is a damning non-answer.”
Damning, predictable, and pathetic. Vance couldn’t muster a simple “Yes” because he is tethered to a fascist. And when you’re tethered to a fascist, you’ve got to stay in goose step.
Walz took that ball and ran with it: “I’m pretty shocked by this. (Trump) lost the election…When Mike Pence made that decision (on Jan. 6) to certify that election, that’s why Mike Pence isn’t on this stage.”
Granted, many urgent issues were raised during the debate – with Vance lying at virtually every turn, like when he said that Trump “saved” Obamacare (as president, Trump repeatedly tried to kill it); like when he said that VP Kamala Harris hasn’t invested in clean energy jobs for American workers (Harris broke the 50-50 Senate tie to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which funds billions in clean energy jobs for American workers); like when he complained that our solar panels are manufactured in China (80 percent are manufactured here); like when he blamed “millions of illegal immigrants” for the housing shortage (this shortage has plagued us since the Great Recession); like when he insisted that he has never supported a national abortion ban (two years ago, these were his exact words: “I certainly would like to see abortion illegal nationally”).
All those issues are vitally important. But none are as existential, as fundamental to our democracy, as the willingness to abide by the results of an election.
Will Vance’s lies about 2020 and his refusal to answer the key question about 2024 (“Would you again seek to challenge this year’s election results?”) propel swing voters toward Harris and Walz? I doubt it will, if the history of veep debates is any guide. But it should.
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Copyright 2024 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.
