Hello Everyone:
The Blogger Candidate Forum is tapping for a weekend edition with a fly vice presidential debate wrap up. How would The Candidate Forum describe the contest between California Senator Kamala Harris (D) and incumbent Vice President Mike Pence (R-IN)? Boring. In 2020 terms, that is a good thing. After the dumpster fire that was the first, and so far only, presidential debate, a boring conversation between two adults is a good thing.
Typically, vice presidential debates do not really have much impact on voters however this year is different. Both incumbent president Mr. Donald Trump (R-NY) and former Vice President Joe Biden (D-DE) are in their seventies: Mr. Trump is 74 and VPOTUS Biden is 77 years-old. The incumbent president recently tested positive for COVID-19 and spent a measly few days in at Walter Reed Military Hospital, being treated with experimental drugs before returning to the White House. As of right now, despite the incumbent president's insistence that he is recovered, questions linger about his health. If elected, the Gentleman from Delaware will be 78-years-old on Inauguration Day and has not committed to running for a second term. Also, the debate between Senator Harris and VPOTUS Pence highlighted the sharp contrast between each party's agendas for the economy, health care, racial inequality, climate change, and more. This leaves The Candidate Forum with one question: Have you voted yet?
Voting is under way and already six million registered voters have cast their ballots. The Candidate Forum has received its ballots and will send by Friday, October 16th in order to ensure that the United States Post Post Office has enough time to process and deliver it. If you prefer to drop your ballot off at a voting center, check your state's secretary of state website for information. If can you safely vote in person, pack provisions, get in line, and stay in line. You cannot be denied a ballot if you remain in line after the polls officially close. Now then, what were the candidates buzzing about?
The COVID-19 pandemic was front and center. The candidates were seated 12-feet apart, shielded with plexiglass, and the audience at the University of Utah's Kingsbury Hall were told not to remove their mask Second Lady Karen Pence. It was also the first topic of the debate.
The Lady from California seized on her party's central thesis that Trump administration's pandemic management was
...the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country (
npr.org; Oct. 8, 2020; date accessed Oct. 10, 2020).
Senator Harris went on to accuse the current administration of covering up information about the pandemic following a briefing in January by the national security team. She added "that Trump still didn't have a plan to combat the disease" (Ibid).
Always the good soldier, the incumbent Vice President gamely defended his running mate's decision to limit travel from China as an example that he took the threat seriously. The incumbent Vice President pointed out that the Biden-Harris plan for combating COVID-19 with testing and developing a vaccine was similar the current administration's plan. In an apparent reference to the plagiarism charges that ended VOPTUS Joe Biden's first run at the presidency in 1988, the incumbent Vice President said,
VPOTUS Mike Pence attempts to portray the Lady from California's criticism of the administration's pandemic management as a comment on the sacrifices Americans continue to make as the pandemic wears on fell flat. The Lady from California was able to connect other topics--e.g. the economy and health care--back to the administration's pandemic response. The Gentleman from Indiana echoed his running mate's enthusiasm over "record-setting progress on developing a vaccine and pledged, as the president has before, that millions of doses would be available by the end of the year" (Ibid).
When asked if she would roll her sleeve for a COVID vaccine, the Lady from California replied "she would take a vaccine approved by medical professions,
but if Donald Trump tells us that we should take, I'm taking it" (Ibid). To this, the incumbent Vice President accused Senator Harris of trying to
undermine public confidence in an effort to develop and approve a vaccine. Without the slight trace of irony he said,
Stop playing politics with people's lives (Ibid).
Moderator,
USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page, did a markedly better job of keeping the debate from spiraling out of control than Fox News' Chris Wallace. At the top of televised and live streamed event, Ms. Page called for
"respectful exchange" and regularly reminded both candidates that their responses should be
uninterrupted (
npr.org; Oct. 8, 2020).
Both candidates did not always comply with Ms. Page's admonitions. Senator Kamala Harris pushed backed whenever incumbent Vice President Mike Pence interrupted her with the now-famous retort
Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking. I'm speaking (Ibid).
She made it abundantly clear, to the cheers of women around the globe, that was not going to let her male opponent get away with playing the intimidation game.
Both candidates frequently avoided answering questions posed by Ms. Page altogether. Rather than pursue an answer or ask follow up questions, the moderator opted to move on another subject. This was a lost opportunity for the candidates to clarify or elaborate their positions on key issues. Both
ignored a key question that is central in voters' minds: Given the ages of the men at the top of the ticket and the president's recent bout with COVID-19, what they do if the president became incapacitated?
Another missed opportunity for the incumbent Vice President was an explanation of how the Trump-Pence administration
would protect preexisting conditions if the Affordable Care Act was struck down by the Supreme Court. He also dodged the question of a peaceful transfer of power should the Biden-Harris ticket prevail.
For her part, the Lady from California refused to answer the question posed by the incumbent Vice President and Ms. Page about whether she supported adding justices to the Supreme Court--
court packing. This was a question that VPOTUS Biden also avoided in the first debate. Both candidates also avoided the question of if the Supreme Court also struck down
Roe v. Wade, how should the individual states write abortion laws.
Do you really need a reminder that the first presidential debate was a complete dumpster fire?
Thus, the candidates strategies reflected the current state of the campaign: the incumbent Vice President painting his opponent as an extremist and the Lady from California frequently bringing up the administration's pandemic management record.
VPOTUS Pence's debate is more disciplined and smooth than his running mate. He arrived ready to portray the Biden-Harris ticket as hostage to the "Far Left Radicals" of the Democratic Party, specifically on the subject of the economy.
The economy, thus far, has been the Republican Party's strongest issue with voters but that strength has diminished as the economy continues to shed jobs and endure business closures. The incumbent vice president
cited an analysis that the Lady from California "in 2019 was the U.S. Senate's most liberal member, and he repeatedly
linked the Democratic ticket with the Green New Deal, a proposal pushed by progressives in Congress to remake the economy with a new energy infrastructure" (
npr.org; Oct. 8, 2020). For the record, Senator Kamala Harris supported the Green New Deal prior to her nomination, and VPOTUS Joe Biden has not (Ibid).
Senator Harris has had less experience with one-on-one debates and leaned into her prosecutor skills, ready to hammer the case against the administration's inept management of the pandemic and the economic fallout. The Lady from California made the incumbent Vice President the stand-in for the president on the subject.
Finally, The Candidate Forum would be completely derelict in its duties if it did not mention The Fly. True story, The Candidate Forum was in the middle of supper during the debate. At first The Candidate Forum thought it was a food speck and instinctively tried to brush it off the screen before realizing it was not food, it was a fly.
Fun art history fact: in Renaissance period art, the fly represented decay.
You can make your own interpretations. What is next?
There was supposed to be another presidential debate this Thursday, October 15th, in Miami, Florida. Concerns over the president's health and outbursts led the Commission on Presidential Debates to change the format of the town hall-style debate from in-person to virtual. The incumbent president rejected this idea and decided to hold a rally. VPOTUS Biden suggested the debate be pushed back a week; an idea rejected by the Trump campaign. Therefore, no debate on Thursday but there is a debate tentatively scheduled on October 22nd and The Candidate Forum will bring you the highlights.
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