For his performance in the vice presidential debate, Tim Kaine has been “smacked around,” writes Peggy Noonan in the WSJ, “but not nearly enough.”
His (Kaine’s) strategy was clear: Block all thought, reduce everything to prefabricated one-liners. He has a weird, un-grown-up regard for the power of sarcasm. Supposedly this would all play well with the common man. No. Mr. Kaine was like the snotty midlevel manager of a box store who comes in after a fight with the wife and starts yelling that your bathroom breaks are too long.
His antics kept the debate from developing into a series of thoughts that could be understood and absorbed. This was a destructive act that kept serious policy from being seriously discussed.
Everyone says vice presidential debates aren’t that important, and everyone must be right, but this is how it changed the race: Now there are two Democrats to dislike, not just one.
Were Tim Kaine’s interruptions a bad debate strategy?
Debbie Young
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