Tag Archives: VP debate

Next up: Harris vs. Pence

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis92@hotmail.com

I won’t describe the recent Joe Biden-Donald Trump bitch-fest as a “debate,” and to be candid I am now a bit leery of what we might get when the parties’ vice-presidential nominees square off next week at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

However, we’re going to watch Democratic Party VP nominee Sen. Kamala Harris square off against Vice President Mike Pence. I will sit in front of my TV just as I did when Biden and Trump squabbled earlier this week.

Here is what I hope happens …

I hope Harris cleans and dresses Pence. I also hope — and I have modest expectations that it will happen — that the vice president will not follow his hero’s lead and take their encounter down the same trail that Trump did with Biden.

Pence, to his credit, doesn’t seem like the kind of boorish hooligan that Trump revealed himself to be Tuesday night.

He has a record that is difficult to defend. He has led the coronavirus task force charged with coordinating our national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He, um, hasn’t done well … at all! Harris will exploit those shortcomings. I don’t expect Pence to stand silently while Harris pummels him.

Nor do I expect Pence to unleash a string of hideous lies while Harris is speaking.

So there you have it. I have set modest expectations for what we might get when Sen. Harris and VP Pence square off. I mean, after watching the sh** show put on by Donald Trump, there is nowhere to go but straight up.

Pundit class weighs in on VP debate

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Some of the nation’s more well-known political pundits have weighed in on last night’s vice-presidential “debate.”

They’ve determined, I guess, that Republican nominee Mike Pence did himself more good than harm and that Democratic nominee Tim Kaine did more harm than good for his own future. Many of them seem to think Pence is a shoo-in to run for president in 2020.

I gleaned from most of the comments that the presidential candidates still must make their own way as they slog on through to Election Day.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/who-won-the-vp-debate-pundits-weigh-in/ar-BBx2cfz?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

I’ll offer this slightly different take, though, on what I heard Tuesday night.

Gov. Pence might have helped Donald Trump — if only slightly — by coming off as the more mature, reasonable, rational, nuanced, intelligent member of the GOP ticket.

Thus, he might have given Trump’s base of supporters hope that in the event of a Trump election — a thought that gives me the heebie-jeebies — that there will be a viable individual who’s able to step in once Congress impeaches and convicts the president of crimes that haven’t yet been defined.

Has the governor wooed any independent voters, or undecided Americans to the Trump-Pence ticket? I doubt it. These VP encounters generally don’t prove to be decisive. We still focus on the candidates at the top of their parties’ tickets.

However, given what we know about Trump’s utter lack of anything involving government or the limits of the office he seeks, I remain quite convinced that a President Trump would do something — maybe early in his administration — that would so anger legislators that he could become the target of a serious impeachment effort.

What might he do? Oh, let’s see. He could fire all the flag officers who would assist him in crafting a war strategy against the Islamic State; Trump could issue an unlawful order to his military, which then would be able to refuse to carry it out; he could impose that unconstitutional ban on Muslims entering the United States; he could forget about a business deal that profited from a government subsidy; he could issue any number of illegal executive orders.

The man is a walking, talking, breathing example of an ignoramus who doesn’t understand anything about government — and he intends to learn about it all while serving as head of state of the world’s most powerful nation.

Mike Pence has given a glimmer of hope to Trump’s followers that they would have a grownup ready to take command once the president is tossed out.

It doubt, though, it’s enough to win an election.

I mean, c’mon. Pence still has to find a way to defend Trump’s horrifying stump-speech pronouncements.

Let’s bring on Clinton and Trump again

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Tim Kaine and Mike Pence are still haggling at this moment. Their vice-presidential “debate” has about another 40 minutes to go.

I am not expecting a “You’re no Jack Kennedy” moment.

So, let’s look ahead to next Sunday’s debate between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump.

They will have to answer the questions that neither of their running mates have been able to answer.

Is this VP joint appearance going to be decisive? I am not predicting that it won’t, but these No. 2 events rarely — if ever — prove to be deal breakers or deal makers.

Clinton’s post-debate “bounce” has moved her back out to a more comfortable lead in those polls that Trump is fond of heralding — when they’ve leaned in his favor. Is there another Clinton bounce coming after the second joint appearance? That will depend if Trump shows up after actually preparing for the questions that will come his way.

I’m just hoping — as I continue to watch Sen. Kaine and Gov. Pence argue over each other — that Trump raises the issue of Bill Clinton’s marital misbehavior as some kind of disqualifier for his wife’s presidential candidacy.

I also am hoping to hear Hillary’s answer.