A friendly game of dodgeball

For me, the highlight of Tuesday night’s one-and-only vice presidential debate was when each admitted he was kind of a schmuck.

This was a highlight in relief from a 90-minute game of dodgeball played by a couple of serious, courteous men trying to be liked by the folks at home watching the CBS News-sponsored event. They each sounded reasonable, for the most part. 

First to put in the dunce cap was Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz who dodged when asked by moderator Margaret Brennan why he claimed to have been in China for the start of the aborted Chinese revolution in 1989. He was not there. 

He started out by talking about he was just a normal Midwest kid who rode a bike, and yackety yacketa.

Brennan did not let him ride away from the question. She demanded an answer.

“I’m a knucklehead at times,” he said.

“I talk a lot, I get caught up in the rhetoric.”

Finally, “I misspoke.”

Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance was asked how he could be No. 2 to Donald J. Trump, whom he said a fistful of years ago was “unfit for office,” and “America’s Hitler.”

Vance has been asked the question before. 

“I was wrong about Donald Trump,” he said, but alibied by saying he was misled by the mainstream media’s lies.

Vance danced on that, but took a heavy body blow at the close of the debate when Walz asked Vance, flat out, “Did he lose the election?”

Vance went into the Waffle House. He refused to confess that Trump had lost, saying that’s something we can talk about, and said many Democrats had protested election results.

But they didn’t try to overturn the election, Walz responded.

The very first question of the night was should the U.S. support, or oppose, a pre-emptive strike against Iran?

Walz waltzed.

Vance vamped, and said Iran didn’t attack Israel when Trump was in office. 

True enough, but Trump tore up a deal with Iran that unleashed that country’s pause in nuclear development.

This was the moment we should have heard a question about Russia’s war on Ukraine. But, sadly, we did not.

Vance was asked about when Trump called climate change a hoax. Vance ignored that and said the Democrats want to buy solar panels made in China.

Vance maintained a smile for most of the night, otherwise he showed little emotion. Unfortunately, Walz’s resting face is a scowl. 

The biggest howler was Vance’s assertion that Trump saved Obamacare, a program he ruthlessly tried to kill.

Brennan goofed once by leading Walz into fact-checking a couple of things Vance said. Vance called her on it and talked over her to claim some time he was entitled to. He did not call her a childless cat lady.

He dodged how Trump would remove millions of illegals, and also if Trump would separate illegal parents from their citizen children.

Walz did not give satisfactory answers to questions about how Kamala Harris would pay for various tax credits.

Walz blamed Trump for his failure to confront Covid, but agreed with Trump in opposition to exporting jobs.

They disagreed with the content of a Minnesota pro-abortion bill. Vance said it permitted abortions until the 9th month. Walz said that was not what the law said, saying it reflected Roe. But Roe imposed limits on abortion, and Walz did not directly deny the Minnesota law had no limits.

Under the heading “threat to democracy,” each accused the other but Walz made a tactical error when he referred to Trump’s supposed plans to imprison his enemies.

Maybe I imagined it, but I thought his eyes shifted, because Trump arrested no one when he was President, but has been charged numerous times by Democratic prosecutors, along with many people around him.

Yes, yes, Democrats I know you believe he earned it, but there are many millions of Americans who believe it is nothing more than lawfare.

When it ended, they shook hands.

Good to see.