No big surprises at the Harris- Pence debate

 

By SJ Otto

The vice president debate was not Earth shattering. Neither candidate screwed up badly. They both gave answers that occasionally had noting to do with the questions. This blog site is clearly anti-Trump and anti-Pence. So the question is not “who won?” The question is “did Kamala Harris do a good enough job?”

Both of these candidates were aggressive, but neither was as aggressive as Donald Trump in the last debate. This debate was not a “pig fest” as with the last one.

The biggest question was on the pandemic. Harris hammered away at the failures of the Trump administration. Mike Pence tried to defend Trump’s record and he did that about as well as he could.

One interesting subject was climate change. Harris hammered Pence on his boss’s anti-science stance. Pence tried to defend Trump on climate change. That was not easy since Trump’s stand on climate change has been terrible. At times it was nearly funny to hear Pence try and explain away Trump’s hideous stand on climate change. Harris brought up all the fires along the US west coast and all the flooding and hurricanes out east.

Pence said “There were no more hurricanes this year than 100 years ago.” Not only was that wrong it was laughable. Pence said that Trump has dealt with climate change by “creating a strong clean market economy.” It wasn’t hard for Harris to counter with the obvious problems created by climate change.

In other issues Harris talked about the disrespectful way in which Trump has treated US troops. Pence took offence at the accusations that trump disrespected US troops. He was very emphatic about that. Both argued over the wisdom of breaking off relations with Iran. Harris pointed out that such positions have made it less safe for US troops and other in that region. Plus Iran is now trying to build nuclear weapons. Pence pushed his imperialistic agenda of killing off various Iranian leaders and accusing Joe Biden of being hesitant to kill off people he accused of being “terrorist leaders.” There are few Republicans who will miss the chance to play “macho man” when it comes to foreign affairs.

Pence accused Harris and Biden of planning to repeal the whole Trump tax that he claimed lowered everyone’s taxes across the board. That is a lie. The taxes were mostly for wealthy people and corporations. Harris said that if Biden is elected they would repeal the taxes for the wealthy, but no more taxes for anyone making under $400,000.

Harris attacked Pence on China, claiming the so called trade war cost Americans jobs. Pence said that Democrats have more faith in Xi Jinping (习近平) China’s leader than in Trump.

Harris said of Trump, “He has betrayed our friends and embraced dictators.” As an example of a dictator she accused Trump of over looking Russia’s part in interfering in US elections.

So far there is a consensus that neither spectacular was said at the debate, by either candidate. And many folks said that this meant a win for Harris, since Trump is badly behind in the polls.

Pix by NBC News