Keller @ Large: JD Vance and Tim Walz remarkably civil in VP debate
The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller's, not those of WBZ, CBS News or Paramount Global.
BOSTON - Live from New York, it was the battle of the second bananas Tuesday night - Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota. For a campaign season that has been one of the nastiest in memory, the vice presidential debate was remarkably civil.
Unless the mind is playing tricks, we actually heard each candidate say they agreed with the other a couple of times.
Contrast of styles
There was a contrast of styles - Vance had the crisp polish you'd expect from a US Senator with countless TV live shots under his belt, albeit robotic at times. Walz got off to a nervous start, but cranked up the intensity as the debate wore on.
Both men displayed the debater's skill of turning their answers into political point-scoring.
On the topic of foreign trouble spots, Walz quickly pivoted to the age issue: "The world saw it on that debate stage a few weeks ago, a nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment," he said, going on to cite Trump-era officials who have denounced the former president as dangerous.
"As much as Gov. Walz just accused Donald Trump of being an agent of chaos, Donald Trump actually delivered stability in the world and he did it by establishing effective deterrence," replied Vance.
Immigration debate
On immigration, Vance sharpened his attack: "The American citizens who have had their lives destroyed by Kamala Harris's open border.. it is a disgrace." And in an apparent effort to drive a wedge between Harris and Walz, Vance said he agreed with Walz on some of the potential remedies for immigration problems. "I think you want to solve this problem. but I don't think Kamala Harris does," he said.
Walz's reply: "Donald Trump had four years, he had four years to do this, and he promised you America how easy it would be, 'I'll build you a big, beautiful wall and Mexico will pay for it.' Less than two percent of that wall got built, and Mexico didn't pay a dime."
And during a long exchange on the economy, Walz took note of Vance's habit of summarily dismissing expert criticism of the GOP ticket's policies. "Economists can't be trusted, science can't be trusted, national security folks can't be trusted. Look, if you're going to be president, you don't have all the answers. Donald Trump believes he does. My pro-tip of the day is this - if you need heart surgery, listen to the people at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, not Donald Trump."
But after a denunciation of free-trade advocates who understated the economic displacement globalism would cause, Vance concluded of the experts that "they were wrong about it, and for the first time in a generation Donald Trump had the wisdom and the courage to say to that bi-partisan consensus, 'we're not doing it anymore.'"
When they inevitably create a word cloud off the debate transcript, the words "Harris" and "Trump" will surely dominate. That's who voters are choosing between, not these two.
Vance handled himself competently. But it's been the strategy of the Harris campaign to make sure swing voters who broke for Joe Biden four years ago are reminded of what they didn't like about Trump, with the goal of overwhelming whatever negatives Trump can attach to Harris. That strategy was well-executed by Walz last night.
And, mercifully, we only have to wait five more weeks or so - give or take a few court challenges - to see if Harris's goal was achieved as well.