Hopefully you were able to watch the Vice Presidential Debate earlier this week. It was definitely a far cry from how the Presidential Debate went, and far less consequential, maybe. I say maybe because we must keep in mind the Vice President is the person who will take over in the event the President is incapacitated for any reason. This, due to where we are in history, makes the VP candidate important, especially when there is a 78-year-old on the ticket, who, as we can all see, is not in the best of shape.
The debate was what might appear to have been a “normal” debate. There wasn’t any name calling, no mansplaining, just a civil discourse amongst the two candidates. Neither had a good night in my opinion, but there was one winner, but only because the other did two memorable things: 1) couldn’t answer a simple yes/no question, and 2) a statement made to the moderators.
Tim Walz, the Democrat candidate, did not seem himself. He did not present himself in the way we’ve seen on the campaign trail. Was it nerves? Was he instructed to act in a way that wasn’t his natural way of being? Was it the format? Not sure, but in terms of expected performance, he fell short. Three things stood out.
The first was just how he appeared during the opening segment. He floundered in his statements, seemed out of his element, and was not as confident as usual and it showed. Now, after the first break, he did seem to catch his breath and stride, doing much better for the remainder of the debate.
Secondly, he was asked about his time in China, particularly his statement about being there during the time of the Tiananmen Square protests. The moderators, rightfully so, provided him with a timeline that showed Walz wouldn’t have actually been there at that exact time, although he had been in China close to that time. To his credit, Walz owned up to it on national TV and apologized. In doing so, he dampened the impact.
Lastly, when questioned by J.D. Vance, his opponent, about the abortion law in Minnesota abortion, of which Walz is the current governor, Walz just couldn’t find the words and did appear to be ill-informed of the law. I would agree, at this time in reproductive rights history, Walz should have been better prepared, or less flustered, in answering this line of questioning.
Each of these did take points away from Walz’s performance.
However, one thing Walz did later, and one thing Vance did to himself, overrode the less then stellar performance by Walz, which I’ll get to in a moment.
J.D. Vance, on the Republican side, actually did better than expected. He presented a cool, calm, and collected persona, not at all like what we’ve seen so far, think his attempt to buy a donut and the like. That is to say, there wasn’t an awkwardness to him. Vance was clear, concise, and stuck to his talking points. Credit must be given where credit is due.
However, Vance did two things, aside from the many lies and spewing of disinformation, that caused a plunge in his credibility with the public, but probably didn’t register for the MAGA-Trumpist crowd. One was something Vance said to the moderators, the other was a question from Walz.
His first faux pas was during an interaction with the moderators. Vance had just reiterated his lie about Springfield (a town living in terror now from a lie perpetrated by Trump and Vance, and being repeated by the candidates and the media alike). After Vance repeated the statement again, ignoring the facts, the moderators made a statement, essentially stating the facts of the situation. The next statement by Vance tells you all one needs to know about his character, and his awareness he is lying to the American people. Vance said, “Margaret, the rules were that you were not going to fact check…” This statement is an acknowledgement that he knows he is lying and doesn’t want anyone calling him out on his lies. Truly appalling in my book, that he lies, knows he lies, and feels no one should tell the masses that he is lying.
The second thing to pull Vance’s performance even further down was how he handled a question that actually came from Walz. It was a very simple question related to the results of the 2020 election. Walz asked Vance if Biden had won the 2020 election. An easy yes/no question that even Trump himself has, in a rare moment, told the truth about. All Vance had to say was yes or no. Yes or no. Simple one syllable words all of us say often throughout the day. But Vance wouldn’t answer the question at all. He would not admit, as Trump has done, that Biden, as all evidence shows, won the 2020 election. Walz reply sealed the loss for Vance, that Vance’s not answering was a damning non-answer, which it truly was. It showed, yet again, the lack of character and courage one needs in any elected official, but especially the person who is second in line to the presidency.
As stated earlier, neither candidate did well in the debate, but one candidate, Vance, did worse. Compared to Walz’s not remembering where he was decades ago and not being able to talk about his own state’s abortion law were bad to be sure. However, not wanting to be fact-checked for accuracy and making a decision to not accurately state Biden won the presidency, shows who Vance is, and shows he is not fit to be in any elected office, and most undoubtedly not qualified, on so many levels, to step into the role of President of the Free World. He lacks the character, the ethics, and the morality to lead. Vance has shown his lack of these fundamental traits many times throughout the campaign. Walz has shown us he is human with natural gaffes and mixed up memories, things we all experience as humans.
For me, I’d rather have someone showing their humanness while also showing they care for me as a person, demonstrating his ability to lift people up, and showing time and again he wants to protect us and to protect democracy as vice president, a heart beat away from the presidency. This is much better than the antithesis of this, a liar, someone who causes real harm to not just his constituents but human beings, and who bows down not to the Constitution, but to Trump.
How will you show us who you, yourself, to be when you are in the ballot box?
P.S.—As election day approaches, make sure to check your voter registration status. Republicans across the nation are purging voter rolls, kicking hundreds of thousands of people off voter rolls, thus hindering their legal right to vote. Check your status at vote.org at least weekly to make sure you have time to take any necessary action to have your vote counted should you no longer show as being registered.
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 