No Bobble Head

I have always enjoyed reading E.J. Dionne's columns. Perhaps that's because I feel a distant kinship with his French Canadian forebears. Dionne writes that Kamela Harris did a superb job last night -- by keeping the focus on Donald Trump's failures and Joe Biden's character:

No matter how hard, in his quiet and earnest way, that Vice President Pence tried to turn Wednesday’s vice-presidential debate into an assault on Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala D. Harris and reality itself forced the discussion back again and again to the failures of the Trump administration.

If Pence’s goal was to disrupt the trajectory of an election that has been moving the Democrats’ way, he plainly failed. And Harris succeeded by declining to make herself a center of attention. She acted instead as advocate for Biden and a sharp, detailed but tonally restrained critic of the current occupant of the White House.

Around our house, we have come to refer to Pence as "Oily Mike." Despite Pence's calm demeanor, that characterization was on full display last night:

Pence’s reserved demeanor may have done more to harm than help the candidate whose cause he was promoting, by reminding viewers of Trump’s extreme lack of discipline.

And, when Pence attacked Biden, Harris was ready with information, not spin:

She was skilled at using Pence’s attacks to provide listeners with new information helpful to her ticket.

Thus, when Pence accused Democrats of being anti-Christian for their handling of Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Harris pointed out that both she and Biden were “people of faith.” She said that she was “insulted” by Pence’s attacks and noted that Biden would, in fact, be only the second Catholic president.

And when Pence attacked Biden’s economic plans, Harris used his criticisms to place herself and Biden in the great tradition of lunch-bucket Democrats — and managed to convey more detail about Biden’s plans than Biden himself had in his own debate. She spoke of how Biden would make it easier for young people to attend college, for all Americans to get health care — and stressed that Biden would not raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 a year.

When Pence accused her of being a lousy District Attorney, she responded that she "would not be lectured" by Pence. She will not be a bobble-headed vice president -- something Pence has been for the last four years.

Image: amazon.sg