Waiting on your talking points,
@dpic73 ?
Overall, I was thoroughly impressed by the civility and decency they showed each other and loved, loved, loved how at the end, their wives came up on stage and the four of them chatted. Inject that shit in my veins.
I thought Vance really helped himself by coming across as a decent, rational and intelligent gentleman - smooth as silk.
I don't think Walz helped or hurt himself - he is what he is but you could tell he was a little nervous at the beginning and he had a lot of talking points he wanted to get out at the expense of directly answering the questions asked.
I don't like how both of them avoided directly answering questions and Walz fumbled the question on his visit to China but you could look at that two ways. Some probably found it endearing that he could have the humility to call himself a knucklehead and others will find fault with it, but to me, that was the worst of it for him and if you're ok with the mountain of lies that Trump tells, that should easily get a pass.
So if you're scoring based on style and demeanor, you would say Vance won the debate BUT, a lie is still a lie no matter how prettily you tell it, and damn he told some whoppers. And if you can't even say the election wasn't stolen, I have no sympathy for you because that should be immediately disqualifying. And we didn't forget about childless cat ladies and Haitians are eating pets just because he was trying to soften his image in front of a wide audience - he still behaves like a jerk when he speaks to conservative media/crowds.
If you were scoring based on substance then Walz won because he could also back up his talking points by sharing how he had already done a lot of those things in the state he governs. He's also salt of the earth and folksy and a lot of people like that about him - he's real.
All in all, it won't move the needle because this election is still a referendum on Trump and he's still a demented, narcissistic sociopath that Pepperidge farm didn't forget.
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