No matter what the spinmasters say, Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential pick Sen. Tim Kaine plucked a win out of Tuesday night’s debate.
Although many instant pundits in the midnight hour wanted to say Donald Trump’s running mate Gov. Mike Pence edged a win, they are wrong.
Kaine did exactly what he needed to do: He put Pence in the position of denying that he and Trump said things they in fact said and racked up point after point of Pence answers that don’t pass fact checks. But even more importantly, Kaine backed Pence into a corner at least six times when Pence didn’t defend Trump positions.
Instead, Pence’s answers turned to attacks on Clinton or to whines.
For instance:
– “I’m happy to defend him,” Pence said, but then the Trump running mate launched into an assault on Clinton.
– “Oh, come on.”
– “Oh, that’s nonsense.”
– “Senator, that was even beneath you and Hillary Clinton – and that’s pretty low.”
– “Senator, you whipped out that Mexican thing again.”
And, yes, “that Mexican thing again,” was one of at least two really bad imitations of Ronald Reagan’s debate line – “There you go again.”
Some commentators labeled Kaine “too aggressive” or “over-caffeinated.”
From our seats, and an understanding that Donald Trump’s stage behavior is the new normal, Kaine was just trying to wake up the nearly comatose Pence.
So if looking sleepy and smug is presidential, Pence aced that one.
There was however, one instant pundit critique Tuesday night with which we agree: Pence seemed to have his eyes firmly set on running for president in 2020, and that may well be why he couldn’t or wouldn’t say too much along the lines of defending the indefensible Trump.
Kaine on the other hand had one job: Set the table for the upcoming Sunday presidential debate by forcing a series of fact check news cycles that for days will contrast what Trump and Pence have said that Pence smugly shook his head about or pointedly called “nonsense.”
And sure enough, the headlines have started and the attack ad from the Clinton campaign was already out shortly after lunch on Wednesday.
But what should become America’s favorite exchange of the vice presidential debate would be the part where Mike Pence – running mate to Donald “insulter-in-chief” Trump, said, “I was listening to the avalanche of insults coming out of Sen. Kaine a minute ago. He says ours is an insult-driven campaign. Did you all just hear that? Ours is an insult-driven campaign?”
Pence goes on: “I mean, to be honest with you, if Donald Trump had said all of the things that you’ve said he said in the way you said he said them, he still wouldn’t have a fraction of the insults that Hillary Clinton leveled when she said that half of our supporters were a basket of deplorables. “
Kaine: “Hillary Clinton said something on the campaign trail, and the very next day, she said, you know what, I shouldn’t have said that.”
Pence: “She said she shouldn’t have said half. “
Kaine: Look for Donald Trump apologizing to John McCain for saying he wasn’t a hero to Donald Trump apologizing for calling women slobs, pigs, dogs, disgusting. Did Donald Trump apologize for taking after somebody in a Twitter war and making fun of her weight? Did he apologize for saying African-Americans are living in Hell? Did he apologize for saying President Obama was not even a citizen of the United States? You will look in vain to see Donald Trump ever taking responsibility for anybody and apologizing.”
Anyone who thinks Sen. Tim Kaine didn’t win this debate needs to watch it again.
Give that man another cup of coffee.