It starts at 9:00pm Eastern time.
It will feature a contrast between the affable geniality of Tim Walz and the smiling-but-not-really-pleased look of weird JD Vance.
I will be watching it and hope that Walz immediately attacks weird JD Vance by listing all the outrageous things he has said in the past, and thus keeps him on the back foot throughout the evening, trying to defend the indefensible.
I might actually watch some of this. Walz should demolish Vance, but it may not matter much.
I will wait until tomorrow, when the news will report all of the hilariously stupid, vile, and fascist, things that Vance said (especially in response to Walz calling him weird.) Vance is the best politician ever at saying things that make him and his running mate look loathsome: even republicans were thinking of ditching Vance for someone else, because of his statements, apparently too over-the-top even for them.
Then, maybe I’ll get a laugh out of that, and that’s all it’ll be worth.
I plan to watch a live stream of Robert Reich and Michael Lahanas-Calderón adding some comentary of their own.
Reich’s usual sidekick, Heather Lofthouse, is out sick; so Lahanas-Calderón, the team’s techie guy, will fill in. Reich and Lofthouse also do a “Saturday Coffee Klatch” in which they comment about politics, the economy, etc. Lahanas-Calderón filled in on the last one of those, and I found many of his comments insightful.
The feed will begin fifteen minutes before the debate actually starts, 19:45−5:00 (7:45pm in the U.S. central time zone where I live), with some introductory comments. If you like hearing mostly progressive takes on current events, you can catch it at this link.
But I agree with the first two commenters:
That’s what I expect. Walz will come out on top and Vance will look like a fool; but the MAGAts, who will not have watched the actual debate (and will certainly not have read a transcript), will be told the opposite by Fox News, OANN and Newsmax.
That’ll be good enough for me.
Just finished watching it. Walz won but I don’t think by enough to make a difference in the campaign. I think both campaigns will be OK with the result.
Only one significant blow. When Vance tried to dodge a question about the 2020 election Walsh jumped in to call it a “damning non-answer”. Walz made one verbal goof, saying he was friends with shooters when he obviously meant victims. Mostly they both did OK with lots of dodging the questions.
I think Vance attributed something bad to Harris in every single answer he gave. Making some attacks on the main candidate would be a goal but Vance was so relentless and off topic it seemed silly. Vance had an expertly scripted response to the inevitable question about abortion. It was long and didn’t say much. Carefully not giving any suggestion of what his personal position is.
Walz came across more naturally. He spent less time attacking Trump. He had well prepped emotional answers on issues like abortion and housing but he skipped by the direct question to get to his general story.