A vice-presidential debate is the greater sage-grouse of American politics: rare, featuring figures with roundish bodies, and with the males of the species known for undergoing dramatic changes of shape.
Tuesday night’s debate fit the avian description nearly perfectly, especially considering that those scarce birds have a broad range. Indeed, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio and Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota – respectively, the Republican Party nominee for vice-president and the Democratic Party nominee, both of whom have undergone dramatic changes in the shape of their political profiles – ranged widely in both the subject and tone of their remarks. From courtly to contentious, from congenial to combative, they stretched to appeal to an unusually broad range of audiences, in some ways a more difficult task than that faced by the two presidential candidates who sparred less than a month ago.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris sought only to score debate points, put their rival on the defence, and move the needle in an unusually close presidential contest. Their vice-presidential counterparts had those hurdles – but also a bigger remit:
Change, or reinforce, the caricatures that have evolved since they were selected
This is a bigger task for Mr. Vance (viewed unfavourably by 46 per cent of the public, with 35 per cent viewing him favourably, according to a 538.com compound poll average) than for Mr. Walz (with a 40-36 point advantage).
Mr. Vance, often a combative figure on the campaign trail, went out of his way to show respect for his opponent, calibrating his language far more effectively than Mr. Trump did last month. And while Mr. Vance used the forum to attempt to overhaul his pugnacious image, Mr. Walz employed Harry Truman-style plain speaking to reinforce his down-home, comfortable-old-shoe persona.
Stay on message
Mr. Vance, who has spent the past several weeks defending comments about “childless cat ladies” and the false claim that cats and dogs have been on the dinner tables in his home state of Ohio, was disciplined, generally not wandering into uncharted territory except when he spoke about the dangers of heeding the counsel of experts. Clearly one of his prescribed missions was to tag Ms. Harris with the border crisis; repeatedly he referred to variations on the theme of “Kamala Harris’s wide-open southern border.”
But it was a test as well for Mr. Walz, whose vulnerability is his lack of exposure to press questions in this campaign, so much so that hours before the debate a Washington Post headline spoke of “Tim Walz’s bubble-wrapped campaign.” From taxes to immigration, it was clear that the Governor repeatedly seemed to be leaning on rehearsed lines – but he showed real passion when discussing health care, child care, and the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Pump up the presidential candidates
These guys are running for Best Supporting Actor, not for the spotlight itself, and they forget that at their peril. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, Hillary Clinton’s running mate, said his goal in 2016 was to “protect the top of the ticket.”
In service of that goal, Mr. Walz cited what he called “the steady leadership that Kamala Harris is providing” and Mr. Vance said that during the Trump presidency the world was more stable than it is today, especially in the Middle East.
At the same time, both attempted to portray the standard bearer of the other party as an extremist. Mr. Walz did that from the very first moment, painting Mr. Trump as too unstable to be the pilot of the ship of state. And when Mr. Vance spoke of the current American leadership, he referred to the “Kamala Harris administration” rather than the “Joe Biden administration.”
Avoid difficult moments
They didn’t entirely. Mr. Vance obscured his views on abortion. Mr. Walz stammered when addressing his false claim he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests.
Appeal to the Midwest region the two were chosen to court
Remember that the Midwest is a big place, and it is not monolithic (though the only states that matter in 2024 are Wisconsin, Michigan and, to the extent that everything west of Harrisburg has Midwestern attributes, Pennsylvania.). In that regard, Mr. Vance used his opening remarks to evoke the up-from-poverty profile that brought him his initial prominence while the folksy Mr. Walz (“I’m a knucklehead at times”) repeatedly spoke of farmers and at times put on a display of “Minnesota nice.”
Above all, primum non nocere
That’s the Hippocratic oath imperative of “first, do no harm.” Or, put another way, The ideal vice-presidential candidate is like the mother of the groom at a wedding: Say little and wear grey. These men said much, but in the end the result was, with few exceptions – a dispute about the immigration status of the Ohio migrants, for example – grey.
