Looks like Pence won the debate decisively.  



RNC prematurely declares Mike Pence debate winner two hours before start time

The Republican National Committee (RNC) appeared to accidentally declare on its website Tuesday night that Mike Pence was the winner of the vice presidential debate, nearly two hours before it was slated to start.

“Americans from all across the country tuned in to watch the one and only Vice Presidential debate. During the debate we helped fact check and monitor the conversation in real time @GOP. The consensus was clear after the dust settled, Mike Pence was the clear winner of the debate,” said the blog post on gop.com, the party’s website.

The post, which went viral nearly two hours before the debate was scheduled to begin at 9 p.m., said that Pence’s top moments were on the “economy” and “highlighting Hillary’s scandals.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rnc-prematurely-declares-mike-pence-debate-winner-two-hours-before-start-time/

Last edited by Goose (10/05/2016 4:25 am)

Just got back from Florence, Italy, yesterday.  The debate was carried on CNN and BBC News over there.  I would in general say the opinion of most Florentines is that the whole USA political process has run off the rails and, to them, reminding them of the Berlusconi fiasco.

I thought this summed it up pretty well:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pence-kaine-debate-vice-president_us_57f3b692e4b0d0e1a9a9a98b

I didn't watch it live, but I caught up on the highlights.

I'm generally disappointed with the debates. Call me old school - I think the purpose of a debate should mostly be to sway undecideds, and secondarily to get a few of the decided voters to crack as well. There should be ample opportunity to hear the candidates' ideas and arguments. In the Lincoln-Douglas debates the candidates took it in turns to open each debate with a one-hour speech, then the other candidate had an hour and a half to rebut, and finally the first candidate closed the debate with a half-hour response (thanks Wikipedia). How about that?

These recent debates are more like mom and dad fighting in the kitchen. Just one person talking over another, back and forth. Since participants are limited to a minute or two for their answers there is hardly time to mount a well-reasoned response, it's all about the quick soundbites. And those soundbites aren't convincing undecideds of anything...it's all about getting people who have already made up their minds to go out and repeat catchphrases with a heightened degree of animosity.