Pence was not Trump’s choice for VP (that would be Ivanka). He had his arm twisted by the GOP leadership. They told him he needed a traditional Republican on the ticket to mollify the donors and assure centrists that at least someone on the ticket was capable of governing.
So he went out and picked the tall, “handsome”, used-car salesman Governor because he fit Trump’s superficial criteria. Did Pence have the same values as Trump? Would he make a good match on policy? Would he help deliver a key state? Who cares? He looks the part (and the party bosses wouldn’t let him pick his daughter).
Tim Kaine, in contrast, was selected by Hillary Clinton to shore up support in a formerly battleground state. He was selected because of his background, his history, and his ability and willingness to be part of the team.
And the difference in the approach to selecting a running mate showed dramatically last night. Pence was slick, he was slippery, and he didn’t rise to the bait attempts of Tim Kaine to get a reaction from him. Kaine kept interrupting and attacking, but he could never make Pence squirm. And at the end of the night the press declared that by shrugging off Kaine’s bull-dog attacks, Pence had “won” the debate.
On style.
The thing is that Tim Kaine wasn’t trying to win the debate. He was executing a strategy that the Clinton campaign set out for him. Attacking Donald Trump at every turn, repeatedly challenging Pence to defend his running mate, and finally calling him on his inability to do so. It wasn’t meant to win the debate, it wasn’t mean to put Pence on the defensive. It was meant to needle Trump.
I know that sounds weird, like a dodge. But if you’ve been watching the Clinton campaign for the past year and a half, it fits in a pattern. They’re playing the long game here. And right now, with a loose-cannon at the top of the Republican ticket, the game is tweak Trump’s nose.
The Clinton campaign is playing “moneyball” using analytics to inform a strategy built to get them the biggest electoral pop possible. They’re not trying to hit a home run on every at bat, or steal a base on every pitch. And so sometimes, to us armchair campaign managers, it seems like they miss a chance to twist the knife. But their march to the White House is full of intent, relentless and powerful.
Tim Kaine went out last night as a “good soldier” not to win the debate (though that would have been nice), but to help his team win the election. That he did his job so well is a testament to the judgement of Hillary Clinton in selecting him for this role. Everyone on the Clinton campaign is 100% committed to her.
Mike Pence went out as Mike Pence, with the goal of keeping the filth of his running mate off his slick suit. That a person so detached from the campaign could be on the ticket with Donald Trump speaks not only to the hollowness of Pence’s convictions, but also to the weakness of Trump as a leader, even within his own ticket.
