Yesterday’s Vice Presidential Debate Is What The Presidential Debate Should’ve Been.

JD Vance and Tim Walz faced off in a policy-focused and relatively cordial vice presidential debate held on Tuesday, October 1st, 2024. The discussion, hosted by CBS News, is most likely the last event featuring candidates from both campaigns, with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump not currently scheduled to debate again.

The debate presented an opportunity for both campaigns to build momentum in what is perceived to be a tight race where polls have barely budged. The two VP candidates attacked each other’s running mate and defended their party policy positions on issues such as the economy, immigration, foreign policy, and abortion.

This 2024 electoral race has been everything but normal. Due to Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 presidential race and Kamala being selected as the new Democratic presidential candidate, the debate schedule is much different than usual.

Typically, presidential candidates would face off in at least two or three debates, with one following the vice presidential debate. Trump and Harris have only debated once thus far, and Trump has declined another debate against Harris. This means that this vice presidential debate will carry more weight than in previous modern elections.

Overall, this was a great vice presidential debate. It’s probably the best political debate in the past decade. It was a breath of fresh air in terms of civility and depth compared to when the presidential candidates were last on the debate stage.

It was immediately clear the two politicians were merely proxies for their running mates, using the questions as vehicles to attack their top-of-the-ticket rivals and on many occasions going out of their way not to personally attack each other.

Walz had appeared nervous at first, and he stumbled a few times when asked about falsely claiming he visited Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests in the spring of 1989, when a report by Minnesota Public Radio said he was there later in the year. He later found his rhythm when dealing with topics of abortion and Trump’s perspective on the outcome of the 2020 election.

JD Vance came to the debate well-prepared. He gave well-thought-out in-depth answers to every question. Vance was sharp, measured, pragmatic, and even compassionate when appropriate. He appeared very presidential.

AMERICA WON LAST NIGHT.. The Vance/Walz debate is everything political debates are supposed to be. The civility was admirable in these highly divisive times. There were even beautiful moments of chumminess that were reminiscent of debates from the 1980s and 1990s, with both men saying “I agree with just about all of that but..” Both men were very cordial, made great points, and respected one another throughout the debate.

After the debate, any serious political person couldn’t help but think, “We should scrap Trump vs Harris and make the 2024 presidential candidates JD Vance vs Tim Walz.

Both men openly admit they disagree on small parts of how to address issues but agree on what the issues are. Both agreed that politics is working together across the aisle and finding common ground.

On the other hand, the moderators were awful. Like the Trump/Harris debate, many of the questions were framed and toned as “gotcha questions,” particularly when directed at JD Vance. To their credit, they did offer up hard questions to both men and asked follow-ups to try and force them to answer questions when the candidates tried to dodge them. They also allowed both Vance and Walz to ask each other questions throughout the debate as well, leading to more fluent and in-depth conversations.

There was a tiff between JD Vance and debate moderator Margaret Brennan that came after a line of questioning over immigration, during which Vance brought up claims regarding Haitian migrants in an Ohio city. A hot topic of recent news cycles and the last debate.

After both Vance and Tim Walz answered questions in the allotted time and used their 60-second follow-ups, Brennan issued a live “fact-check” before moving on to the next set of questions, as her fellow moderator Norah O’Donnell did after discussions about climate change.

Brennen said, “and just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, temporary protective status.” As she attempted to move on and pass questioning to O’Donnell, JD Vance interrupted, repeatedly saying “Margaret” as she tried to continue, then referenced the debate’s fact-check rules.

JD said, “The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check, and since you’re fact-checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s going on.” He then spoke for roughly 20 seconds describing the Customs and Border Protection’s phone application process for migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. JD Vance did an amazing job of calmly taking command of the debate by fact-checking these debate moderators who tried to fact-check him.

I’m sure social media will be blowing up today with some conservatives making fun of Walz’s school shooter blunder, while some liberals will be calling out Vance for his 2020 election response. These extreme demographics are missing the main takeaway of this entire debate. That is most Americans agree on what the issues of America are, we just slightly disagree on how to solve them.

Overall, both candidates did well. Walz held his own in the debate by giving viewers more details about policies than his running mate has all year. However, Vance clearly won the debate. He delivered a stellar performance by being polished, smooth, knowledgeable, and having the self-awareness of being charismatic, a sharp contrast to Trump’s usual brash and sometimes tumultuous tone and posture.. This was vital as it should play well with Trump’s most challenging electorate, suburban women. This is the first time a Republican VP ever received over 50% in an instant poll… and it oversampled Democrats by 5 points. Vance’s dominant debate performance shows why he was picked as Trump’s running mate. Trump’s first, most important pick as the Republican candidate for president was the perfect one.

While I don’t think either campaign gained or lost a lot with yesterday’s debate, as much of the electorate is already decided, it was great to see a well-informed debate for a change, as it should give people a little bit of hope for the future to come.

Like what you read? Give it a few claps. Share this story within your network. Contribute to the discussion.