WASHINGTON: The only scheduled US vice-presidential debate on Tuesday night was so cordial that the expression “agree with you” was bandied around nearly a dozen times as Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz found common ground on several occasions at a time of toxic polarization in the country.
Outside of providing granular details, the two veep candidates concurred about bringing jobs back to the US, doing more to address gun violence, and reforming the immigration system among other issues in the course of a 90-minute engagement that was so civil that comedians joked it would have upset Donald Trump.
As Walz concluded his arguments saying, “Well I’ve enjoyed tonight’s debate and I think there was a lot of commonality here…” Vance endorsed the view, adding, “Me too, man.”
True to form, Trump railed about the CBS moderators and called Walz a “total joke” who talks “total bs” as he resorted to his familiar infantile name-calling. “Walz was a Low IQ Disaster – Very much like Kamala… JD Vance just CRUSHED Tampon Tim with the FACTS,” he said in a running commentary on his platform Truth Social.
Post-debate polls showed viewers deadlocked on the winner. CBS’ own flash poll found 42 per cent thought Vance won, 41 per cent thought Walz did better, and 17 per cent thought it was a tie. Politico, which called the debate a “midwestern nice-off,” polled a 47-47 split with 7 percent unsure. A Washington Post real-time poll of 22 uncommitted swing state voters put Vance ahead 14-8.
There was broad agreement among pundits that Vance, coming into the debate with “likeability” issues among voters in comparison to the genial Walz, retrieved a lot of ground by being affable and dialing down on Trump-like combativeness. Both candidates directed their attacks on the other’s Presidential candidates while treating each other respectfully. They also spoke at greater depth, and with nuance, about policies relating to hot-button issues such as abortion and gun control, although both danced around sticky foreign policy issues – such as whether they would back an Israeli strike against Iran.
Surrogates for both parties picked through the exchanges for viral moments to ply on the toxic swamp that is social media. For the MAGA crowd, it was Walz’s bloomer that he has “become friends with school shooters” where he may have meant school shooter victims’ families. Vance ignored the slip while commiserating with Walz when he disclosed that his teenage son had witnessed a school shooting, saying that was awful. Democrats piled on to Vance’s dodging the question on whether he agreed Trump lost the 2020 election, even as he claimed there was a “peaceful” transfer of power.
The debate is not expected to substantially alter what is still a close race within the margin of error. But it did establish the fact that outside of social media, there is still plenty of civility in American politics.
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