During Tuesday’s televised debate, JD Vance and Tim Walz superbly displayed their qualification for the VP role by remaining uncontroversial, under the radar and uninteresting.
Millions of Americans grabbed their popcorn and tuned in to watch their second favorite politicians go head to head in a bloody fight to the death. Unfortunately, both candidates stuck to the issues and did little sniping or insulting so why did they even bother to show up?
Vance in an effort to balance Trump’s unhinged, rambling brashness was polite and thanked his debate partner multiple times even at one point offering to pick Walz’s kids up from school. Walz and Vance agreed with each other on crucial issues such as gun deaths, hurricane relief and who should run for president.
Both candidates seamlessly avoided answering questions directly like professional politicians but like amateur entertainers. No one watches NASCAR to see the cars not-crash.
At times it seemed like the debaters might go head to head, but the moderators had a lot to discuss so they had to move on.
A recurring critique from Vance was to ask why Harris had not delivered her presidential campaign promises whilst she has been vice president. Perhaps JD overestimates the power he will have in office or no one told him that the role of the vice president is to not do anything, that’s the point. No one had even heard of Kamala Harris until she ran for president, not even Joe Biden. Even JD had to introduce himself at the start of the debate to make sure the moderators hadn’t booked the wrong guest.
As the nearly two-hour debate dragged on, viewers reported to finding more entertainment watching the background slowly fade from blue to a slightly lighter blue and then back to blue.
Journalists too bemoaned the lack of insubstantive content with one New York Post reporter saying, “There wasn’t even a fly landing on anyone’s head to spice things up. What am I going to write about now? What they said? Like, their words? Ugh. Boring. Bor-ING.”
In post-debate surveys, viewers agreed that Tim Walz has a squishy face and JD Vance has blue, blue eyes. When asked who they thought won the debate, swing voters unanimously agreed that yes, there was a debate that happened.
The civil, policy-focused debate may have been a victory for democracy but it was an immense failure for television networks and insult enjoyers everywhere.
We’re out of time and I am afraid there are still a number of subjects to discuss, so we will end it there, thank you.
