Walz v Vance felt like flashback to a pre-Trump era

The primary aim for candidates in a vice-presidential debate is to do no harm to the name at the top of the ticket. Both JD Vance and Tim Walz passed that test with flying colours.

In fact, this debate was more substantive, policy-focused and certainly more cordial than anything we heard from the Donald Trump and Kamala Harris head to head last month.

The running mates largely listened to, and answered, questions from the moderators, rather than serving warmed-up, pre-packaged talking points.

It felt like a flashback to a pre-Trump debate era when candidates were allowed to be civil and, shock-horror, even briefly agree with those at the opposite lectern.

Vance is the most interviewed of any of the four presidential candidates or running mates this year, regularly appearing on cable television in the US, and in the early exchanges it was telling.

He was slick and commanding, in contrast with Walz who betrayed early signs of nerves, stumbling over his words.

In Walz’s first answer about the Middle East crisis, he appeared to confuse Israel and Iran twice, at one point referring to “Israel and its proxies”.

But the man from Minnesota – as he so often reminded the viewer – soon found his way, peppering his answers with appeals to “folks” at home. He stared down the camera while delivering the everyman schtick which was the main reason Kamala Harris picked him as a running mate.

‘I misspoke’, admits Walz

“I misspoke,” Walz said when challenged on his inaccurate statement about being in Hong Kong teaching when the Tiananmen Square massacre happened (newspaper records indicate he was, in fact, in Nebraska).

“I’m a knucklehead at times,” he added as if to say – you and I are just the same, you forget your keys in the car, and I forget that I was in the Midwest and not in the midst of one of the most notorious events in recent memory.

Vance more mellow, and even likeable, than expected

Team Walz may have been expecting Vance to assume his “attack dog” persona but this was a more mellow, balanced, and even likeable performance from Trump’s understudy, specifically designed to appeal to the independent voter.

He began with a thank you to the broadcaster CBS for hosting the debate and to the viewers “caring enough about this country” to tune in.

He expressed concern for the 17-year-old son of Tim Walz, who had witnessed a shooting while playing volleyball. “I didn’t realise your son had witnessed a shooting,” he said, “that’s awful.”

Even on abortion – one of the thorniest issues for Republicans – he made a decent stab at appearing moderate.

“This is about health care,” he said. I just want to “make it easier for mums to afford to have babies,” he insisted while stating he has never called for a federal abortion ban.

Walz seized on reproductive rights issue

In fact, Vance has in the past expressed his support for a bill which would ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Walz spotted his moment to seize upon the reproductive rights debate, one of the loudest rallying cries for the Democratic Party.

He retold the tragic story of Amber Thurman, a woman who died because she could not access legal abortions and timely medical care owing to Georgia’s abortion ban.

It is an incredibly powerful, distressing story and one the Democrats are using on the campaign trail to shine a light on Donald Trump’s role in overturning Roe v Wade, which gave women the constitutional right to choose.

Unlikely to shift the dial

There were no knockout blows for either candidate and as with all vice-presidential debates, it is unlikely to shift the dial on polling or alter the momentum of the election race.

But the fact that JD Vance did so well on the undercard may just entice Donald Trump to accept the offer of another bout against Kamala Harris because – as we well know – he does not like being outshone.

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