US vice presidential hopefuls clash

By common consent, pundits do not believe that any debate of the US vice presidential candidates matters at all. Yet oddly the encounter between Hillary Clinton’s pick, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, and Donald Trump’s running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, was interesting, if not actually fascinating, because for the first and indeed only time US voters got to see political faces that were relatively new to them, go head to head. In short, the reason that Tuesday’s debate between the rival would-be VPs turned out to be attractive viewing was simply that these two debaters were not Trump and Clinton.  The electorate is already deeply disenchanted with the lackluster choice before them on November 8. They have to pick between a loud-mouthed racist braggart and a classic example of a deeply insincere Establishment machine politician. Perhaps the running mates might provide some straw for confused voters to grasp in the swirling and polluted waters of US politics. In the event, the 90 minutes of often sharp exchanges did little to offer electoral comfort. Senator Kaine, who had a reputation for being measured and quietly-spoken, surprised onlookers by launching a series of aggressive attacks on Trump, focusing on his undisclosed tax affairs and calling him a “fool or a maniac”. But the verbal assaults shattered against a calm and imperturbable Governor Pence, who was the very opposite of Trump.  As one commentator noted, the Trump that Pence defended  sounded nothing like the intemperate blusterer who had just had such a bad week with a poor, rambling performance in his first debate with Clinton and involvement in a ludicrous and demeaning social media row with a former Miss Universe. Kaine did himself no favors by his constant interruptions which merely made his opponent seem more statesmanlike.  And Pence did come over well, perhaps too well from The Donald’s point of view. It is being reported that Trump was not best pleased with his running mate’s performance because it focused too much on Governor Pence and not enough on Donald Trump. But then as polls show Trump slipping further behind Clinton, it is characteristic that he is casting around for anyone to blame but himself. And his diehard supporters are clearly willing to do anything to boost his chances. There was much hilarity when tweets started appearing declaring that the Republican VP candidate had won the debate. The problem was that these messages were posted before the debate had even started. Trump’s alarm is the greater because early voting, which actually began in North Carolina on September 9, is now picking up. The opportunity to score a slam dunk triumph over Clinton is rapidly shrinking. Much will depend on Trump’s showing at the next debate with Clinton on Sunday. There is now a sense that Trump’s unruly mouth and unstatesmanlike behavior has cost him the White House. He no longer presents the fundamental change to US politics for which voters yearn. He has no clear and positive vision, just negative assaults on women, minorities, not least Muslims, and any other targets that will please his core redneck supporters. It now seems likely that American voters will hold their noses and vote Clinton, knowing that she will bring four more years of self-interested and polarized maneuvering within the still entrenched Washington establishment.