CleverBomb
On Space Out
Ok, maybe to Gov. Pence on style, but Sen. Kaine on substance.
Mr. Trump won't like hearing that his VP pick did better than he did (honestly, that's not saying much). This should produce some interesting Tweets. One pundit noted that this wasn't Gov. Pence debating as VP candidate (and in particular, he wasn't debating as Mr. Trump's VP candidate); instead, he seemed to be playing the 2020 Presidential candidate*. Which probably diminishes Sen. Cruz's stock somewhat, since Gov. Pence managed to establish his social-conservatve/evangelical credentials here while not having overtly repudiated his own party's Presidential nominee as Sen. Cruz did at the convention. Yeah, he did throw Mr. Trump under the bus a few times tonight, but since he didn't say outright that was what he was doing, it may pass unnoticed on that side of the aisle.
Should be plenty of material for ads featuring Gov. Pence denying that Mr. Trump said something, followed immediately by video of Mr. Trump actually saying that exact same thing. In the moment during the debate, that might have worked to some extent, but not in the later reporting. And unlike the first Presidential debate, the audience wasn't all that large -- so most people will be hearing about it second-hand and filtered through fact-checks.
On the whole, this wasn't the game-changer that Team Trump needed in the short term, and the long-game (to the extent that one more month is the long-game) impact isn't in their favor either.
*Or perhaps the 2016 candidate? (As in, ignore that guy at the top of the ticket -- I'll really be the one in charge. His typical framing for that was "a Trump/Pence ticket would not do [X]".)
Mr. Trump won't like hearing that his VP pick did better than he did (honestly, that's not saying much). This should produce some interesting Tweets. One pundit noted that this wasn't Gov. Pence debating as VP candidate (and in particular, he wasn't debating as Mr. Trump's VP candidate); instead, he seemed to be playing the 2020 Presidential candidate*. Which probably diminishes Sen. Cruz's stock somewhat, since Gov. Pence managed to establish his social-conservatve/evangelical credentials here while not having overtly repudiated his own party's Presidential nominee as Sen. Cruz did at the convention. Yeah, he did throw Mr. Trump under the bus a few times tonight, but since he didn't say outright that was what he was doing, it may pass unnoticed on that side of the aisle.
Should be plenty of material for ads featuring Gov. Pence denying that Mr. Trump said something, followed immediately by video of Mr. Trump actually saying that exact same thing. In the moment during the debate, that might have worked to some extent, but not in the later reporting. And unlike the first Presidential debate, the audience wasn't all that large -- so most people will be hearing about it second-hand and filtered through fact-checks.
On the whole, this wasn't the game-changer that Team Trump needed in the short term, and the long-game (to the extent that one more month is the long-game) impact isn't in their favor either.
*Or perhaps the 2016 candidate? (As in, ignore that guy at the top of the ticket -- I'll really be the one in charge. His typical framing for that was "a Trump/Pence ticket would not do [X]".)
