WASHINGTON _ At the start of the vice-presidential debate the other night, moderator Elaine Quijano of CBS News made a valiant attempt at conducting an exchange of substance and seriousness. She asked Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Mike Pence to cite the qualifications, skills and temperament that equip them to step into the presidency "at a moment's notice" if circumstances should dictate.
Each cited his previous governmental experience, Kaine as a mayor of Richmond, governor of Virginia and U.S. senator, and Pence as an Indiana congressman and governor.
They left it at that and proceeded to turn the debate into a sparring match over the deficiencies not of each other but of their ticket mates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Pence seemed to have the best of it, not for Trump but at least for himself, displaying a smoother and more courteous manner than Kaine, who repeatedly interrupted him, eager to force Pence to defend Trump's numerous contradictions.
Pence instead became the champion of boiler-plate Republican conservatism, which Trump only tangentially represents, to the great distress of the party establishment that has deserted him in droves. So in that sense, Trump may get some brownie points in choosing him, and Pence may have raised his profile as a possible 2020 presidential nominee, assuming Trump loses in November.
Going back to Quijano's valid question of presidential qualifications, Kaine's answer that he has the stuff to be a true governing partner to a President Hillary Clinton was much more realistic than Pence's. Who can imagine Trump delegating any major responsibilities to any vice president?
Politically speaking, the real purpose of this veep debate was to demonstrate whether Pence could rescue Trump from the deep hole he dug for himself in the first debate with Clinton. Instead, he ignored all Kaine invitations to defend his ticket mate, and he diligently played the loyal sidekick.
Unfortunately for the vice presidency itself, the moderator's noble effort to get both Pence and Kaine to address the office as a serious and functional job was lost in a crossfire over which presidential nominee was the greater insulter of the other.
It got to the point where, when Kaine said he couldn't believe that Pence would "defend the insult-driven campaign that Donald Trump has run," Pence asked the audience: "Did you all hear that? Ours is an insult-driven campaign?" He reminded the viewers that Clinton had called Trump supporters "a basket of deplorables."
Kaine replied that his candidate had pulled back that remark, and countered that Trump had never apologized to any of his insulted targets, including John McCain, various women and President Obama for the false allegation that he was not American born.
As Quijano struggled in vain to get control of the runaway insultathon, the whole debate disintegrated into an inconclusive he-said, she-said fiasco that did little to put any luster on the embattled Trump candidacy, or to make Clinton any more trustworthy or likeable. Nor was the vice presidency itself elevated by the exercise, despite the prominence lent to the office by recent occupants such as Republican Dick Cheney and Democrat Joe Biden.
Perhaps four years from now, the virtues of the vice presidential debate may come under new scrutiny as a result. But for political junkies, at least, it will remain appealing, not to mention lucrative for the television networks and their analysts who chew it over endlessly for fun and profit.
Moderator Elaine Quijano deserves credit for trying to preserve decorum while encouraging a free and open exchange of views between the would-be veeps. But their own political objectives, which consisted largely of swapping allegations, were unedifying.
It can only be hoped that Sunday's second confrontation between Trump and Clinton, in a town-hall format with questions from the audience, will be an improvement over the performance of the two stand-ins. The pressure will be on the celebrity businessman to put his campaign back on track himself, and in any event the rematch of the principals should be quite a show.
