Running mates set higher stakes for presidential debates

The appearance of swallows at the beginning of summer has helped craft a wonderful English idiom: "One swallow doesn't make a summer." All it warns against is forming 'a general opinion or judgment on the basis of a single event, remark, etc.'

 Now, there are less stern, in fact, mellower, poetic or philosophic versions of the expression-- 'one swallow not making a summer.' One of which is - "This, too, shall pass," possibly referring to grim moments - being attributed to late lamented novelist and poet Syed Shamsul Haque by his son named Ditiyo (Second) Syed Haque. The other version is in the famous words of novelist Humayun Ahmed—"This is not the only day; there are other days to beckon."

All these idioms may fit into both ends of the spectrum of emotions being at play, following the verbal duel between governor Pence and Senator Kaine, Republican and Democrat vice presidential nominees respectively, on Tuesday evening.

In the presidential debate on September 26, Hillary - an experienced interlocutor - beat Donald Trump hands down. Donald came to the stage with some inherent disadvantages; first, he was practically making his debut in a one-to-one debate. Secondly, whilst Mrs. Clinton used a whole array of briefing files to prepare herself for the event, Donald on the other hand, relied on crowd-sourced oratory, literally on the hoof.

In contrast, his running mate came to the table with a clear-cut strategy and tactical repertoire to flesh out on the voids Donald had left. Particularly in terms of temperament, governor Pence looked calculative, cool headed and composed; yet combative when he bluntly referred to Kaine as a 'failed' governor of a state.

At one stage, when Pence would be confronted with a recital by Kaine of uncivil words used by Trump, Pence sounded as if he felt his senior partner lacked polish. Reaction in the Trump camp was instantaneous. Interestingly, a Republican-sourced Twitter on the television screen read: "Well, polls give Pence a thumbs up but Donald doesn't! Pence looked like being his own man."

Hillary, by contrast, thanked Kaine for sharing, and not straying into any denial mode. But he was criticised by some observers who thought he came wired to a memory bank to reel off from it somewhat like an automaton.

It seemed as though an unfazed Pence was courting interruptions from Tim Kaine which earned him a Twitter epithet of being a 'caffeinated' performer. The Democrat nominee interrupted his Republican rival at least 30 times, compared to half that number he had to contend with.

On the whole, if you look up close at the proceedings, you would find that content-wise, Kaine was substantial and aggressive but Pence's style was subtle and sophisticated to a fault when he murmured evasively— "it 's low, it's low on your part"—obviously, without an effective answer to offer to a legitimate Kaine question.

 Kaine stuck to his guns on issues, spewing out just about everything exercising the national thought process today —Trump's undermining of women, minority cultural groups, Afro-Americans, Latinos, Mexicans, his rooting for deportation of most of the so-called 160 million illegal immigrants form one category of his disruptive agendas.

In other categories fall bans, walls: xenophobic antagonisms to ensure that America is for the Americans. The trade pacts with important nations or groups of countries would have to be rewritten for American companies to stay home and save jobs for their compatriots. This has appeal to white blue collar Americans.

In this warped perception, America is not obliged to pay for the security burdens of NATO and its allied members, or for that matter, provide security guarantee in the Middle-East free of cost.

Trump may be even ready to allow for nuclear proliferation by throwing to the winds the NPT.

Pence had no answers to these questions; not any convincing and unassailable ones, to be sure. And what answer can you expect when Putin is 'solicited ' for allegedly cyber hacking in the US electoral system?

Trust issues continue to feature over Trump Foundation; Clinton's charitable foundation drawing on foreign donations; Hillary as secretary of state operating on her personal e-mail server with 33,000 items having been withheld probably due to their 'sensitivity'; and last but not least, Trump's alleged evading tax payment for years. 

Our only hope is that the grounds already covered extensively may be left out in the next series of debates to make room for a meaningful answer to the prime question centred on how the Hillary- Kaine combination is going to be a change-maker avoiding being 'more of the same'.   

 The takes from Tuesday's face-off, together with those of the first debate between the presidential candidates, will be the grist to the mill of preparations for the next two presidential debates scheduled within the current month itself. Pence clinched 20 percentage points over Kaine in the encounter, according to instant polls. Although the presidential debate is a different ball game and a tremendous standalone event, Pence, as part of the Trump ticket, appears to have made up for the margin of defeat at 20 percent that his senior partner had conceded to Hillary Clinton.

There is a caveat, though, to Pence's success. In a post–debate assembly of some one and a half a dozen 'undecided voters' organised at the studio, the anchor asked them to raise their hands to indicate their support to either Pence or Kaine. Five persons thought Kaine performed better with only two endorsements for Pence. The rest remained undecided.

Pundits tend to view a vice-presidential debate as sort of a key-hole through which you assess the potential of one who may have to stand in for the president during a contingency.

As for Tuesday's encounter between the two running mates, it has not only been an appetiser for the main course, but also raised the stakes for the two upcoming presidential crossings of swords. In the unlikely event Hillary's fortune is reversed in the second round, her momentum with popular votes may be diluted in the final debate. So her stakes going forward are that much higher.

The writer is a contributor of The Daily Star. shahhusainimam@gmail.com