Kaine lost the night but won the morning It wasn’t pretty, but he got the job done.

[riversedge]

Great take on Kaine's strategy--and I think it is spot on. Not long. Enjoy


Judd Legum
Editor-In-Chief, ThinkProgress


9 hrs ago 4 min read


Kaine lost the night but won the morning
It wasn’t pretty, but he got the job done.

https://thinkprogress.org/kaine-lost-the-night-but-won-the-morning-aca40f58d178#.8hgq3187b



....................

..................So it’s not surprising that, when the debate ended, a narrow majority of viewers thought that Pence won:

But as the sun rose, a different narrative of the debate emerged.

At this point, it’s important to note that Tim Kaine is a lawyer. Sometimes lawyers cross-examine witnesses, breaking them down in real time for the judge and jury. That’s not what Kaine did last night.

Last night, Kaine conducted a deposition. In a deposition, a lawyer questions a witness outside of the courtroom, but everything is recorded and can be used later on. These aren’t flashy or scripted affairs. A deposition can be repetitive and boring. But over many hours, a skilled lawyer can get what he wants out of a witness.

What Kaine wanted to accomplish last night was to force Pence to react to some of Trump’s most outrageous statements. This was important both to remind people that Trump said those things and to place Pence in the uncomfortable position of having to react.

He pivoted to that topic again and again. This was part of his response to an early question about why some voters distrust Hillary Clinton:..........................

[kimbutgar]

1. You could tell he knew he was being a "jerk" to get the facts out!

I got what he did. He got the real issues out and exposed Cheetos as unfit to be president in every shape and form knowing he had a big audience.

[ginnyinWI]

2. You always need to wait a bit until the dust settles.

In this case it took until the next morning. Pretty fast, really.

[Cracklin Charlie]

3. I thought that tack was brilliant.

You could almost feel the noose growing tighter around Pence's neck.

[LakeVermilion]

4. Any chance that the Clinton/Kaine team...

knew that the evening pundits were going fawn over Pence and then used the Pence material to show how superficial the TV pundits operate. Really the TV reactions to the debate demonstrated little the TV pundits understand the deep strategies. In their zealous efforts to praise Pence, commentators now look pretty shallow to me, and the nation.

[mr_liberal]

5. I think what he did good is make so much noise about Trump that

it became all about him and drowned out any attacks Pence made on Hillary. He even interrupted Pence anytime he tried to attack Hillary.

So I think thats what he was suppose to do and Id say it did work even though he made himself dislikable and probably didnt gain any voters.

As long as its about Trump, Hillary wins.

[SunSeeker]

6. K & R

[BlueMTexpat]

7. IMO, Kaine did not

even lose the night.