After 40 years of vice presidential debates, watching one with WSU Shockers is a hoot | Opinion
After 40 years a journalist having to watch vice presidential debates, I finally figured out how to enjoy the experience — surrounded by college students in the student union, with an icy cup of lemonade, a box of freshly popped popcorn, a house-made brownie sprinkled with powdered sugar and a pile of candy in the middle of the table.
That’s how I watched Tuesday’s faceoff between our current vice presidential hopefuls, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
The bipartisan watch party was held in the Rhatigan Center at Wichita State University, sponsored by the Political Science, Student Engagement and Housing departments. I’m not sure who was responsible for the free snacks, but they were well-appreciated. And I left with a free Sharpie gel pen, courtesy of Student Engagement, so that was pretty cool.
But the coolest part was that by pure random chance, I wound up at the rowdy table, between students Jeshae Taylor and James Quinn.
Taylor, a big supporter of Kamala Harris, livestreamed the entire two-hour debate with her phone on Instagram, sprinkled with her own running commentary.
Some examples: “That was a weak handshake,” and “I don’t know what J.D. Vance is talking about, but I’ve got a darn headache. He’s speaking nothing but nonsense. I need to go take a Tylenol and aspirin.”
Quinn, meanwhile, was like a one-man real-time fact-checking machine.
He constantly and passionately waved his hands at the screen and kept murmuring to his girlfriend — a very patient young woman — with statements like “She (Harris) can’t do that. She’s not the president, she’s the vice president.”
Our table’s clamor annoyed the more studious group at the next table over, who kept waving over at us to keep it down. As if.
As for the debate itself, let’s just say that it’s not one for the history books. It was mostly a repeat of well-worn campaign themes.
At the beginning, some poli-sci students handed out debate BINGO cards with 25 expected keywords to mark off as they were said, including “Small business,” “Project 2025” and “Abortion/IVF/RHC.”
By night’s end 23 of the 25 squares were filled, with only “fracking” and “Ukraine” left empty. I got some points from the young folks when I pointed out they missed one. Although Walz never said “Weird,” his trademark description of Trumpublicans, Vance said it twice, once referring to climate science and again when talking about gun violence and Finland.
There were no great zingers, like in 1988, when George H.W. Bush’s running mate Dan Quayle compared his legislative experience to John F. Kennedy’s, and Michael Dukakis’ running mate, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, famously fired back: “I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”
Neither were there any great embarrassments, like in 1992 when third-party candidate Ross Perot’s running mate, retired Admiral James Bond Stockdale, had to have a question repeated because he’d turned off his hearing aid while Quayle and Al Gore bickered back and forth with him in the middle.
Tuesday’s debate got high marks in post-debate network punditry for remaining calm, cordial and policy-driven.
It was a high contrast to last month’s debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump, which veered off into some really strange spaces like allegations of pet-eating migrants in Ohio and whether people are leaving Trump rallies before he’s done speaking.
But I didn’t really need to listen to the pundits, because I’d already gotten the same take from Ainsley Altenbern, a WSU student from Illinois.
“This has been a really good debate,” she said, during the commercial break before the closing statements. “I’m really enjoying the fact that they can have some commonality, but the differences are still there.” For example, “They agree there’s a housing crisis, but the way they’re going about wanting to solve it is different.”
So a big thank you from this jaded old political writer to the kids at WSU for sharing their debate night with me.
From the passion of Jeshae and James to the quiet thoughtfulness of Ainsley, I’m confident the political future of America will be in good hands.
And it could even be fun.
This story was originally published October 2, 2024 at 1:43 PM.
