OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ) – Political analysts are curious to see what happens as Mike Pence and Kamala Harris prepare to take the stage in Utah on Wednesday night.
“[It’s] probably not greatly important, but you certainly want to have a credible candidate on the stage. Someone you obviously believe could take over as president if the unthinkable happens,” said UW-Oshkosh Political Science Professor Dr. David Siemers. “The president’s COVID diagnosis, the age of the two candidates, and the fact that we’ve still got an ongoing pandemic certainly make the vice presidential debate maybe a little bit more interesting and consequential this time around.”
After last week’s presidential debate turned into a de facto shouting match, Siemers is expecting the discussion between vice presidential candidates to be a bit more civil.
“I think you have two people with very, very different styles than Donald Trump,” Siemers told WTAQ News. “You’ll get a lot more dialogue in this debate than we had during the one last week.”
Vice presidential debates can get interesting, however, as Siemers says they can usually take a bit harder lines that presidential candidates do – because people want to think ‘happy thoughts’ about their presidential candidates.
He also points out that campaigns tend to rely on vice presidential candidates to deal the bigger, more devastating blows – referring back to the 1988 Vice Presidential debate with “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”
“I don’t know if Kamala Harris or Mike Pence can come up with such lines. But if they can, and define their opponent in a way that really sticks in the public consciousness, that’s what you’re trying to do in this debate,” Siemers said.
While he doesn’t think either side will land any verbal haymakers, he’s still interested to see how each candidate will handle the spotlight.
“Mike Pence will have to show himself to be a humane, rational, good debater to be a contrast with Donald Trump and what he did last week,” Siemers said. “Kamala Harris landed a few great punches during the presidential race, but she really didn’t distinguish herself and faded pretty quickly. It’s a big task for her soon to do incredibly well on the national stage.”
The Vice Presidential Debate begins at 9:30 p.m CDT on Wednesday.
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