When all the fact checking and head shaking and hand wringing is over, the single most resonant question of Tuesday night's vice presidential debate will be that posed by Tim Kaine to Mike Pence on abortion: Why don't you trust women?
"Governor, why don't you trust women to make this choice for themselves?" Kaine asked Pence directly. "Why doesn't Donald Trump trust women to make this choice for themselves?"
That pointed line of inquiry will linger, in part, because it was one of the very last exchanges of the night. But it will also stick because, after a debate filled with crosstalk and a dizzying array of issues, it was clean and comprehensible and contextualized by a decades-long debate that most Americans are familiar with: Do women get to make their own health decisions on abortion or should the government dictate what they do?
Kaine's contention that the decision should be left up to women was likely the most effective line of the night given the dynamics of this election cycle. It went straight to the heart of one of the race's most important demographics: white college-educated women. That's a demographic Republicans usually win but that's leaning Clinton this year, and Kaine's answer was music to their ears.
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Sure, 66 percent of college graduates say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, but "trust" was really the operative word here. Kaine's affirmation likely helped solidify the thinking of some usual GOP-leaners who are considering defecting. You can almost hear them thinking: Yes, why shouldn't we be entrusted with making our own health choices?
"On fundamental questions of morality," Kaine concluded, "we should let women make their own decisions."
In a campaign where Donald Trump has repeatedly demeaned and objectified women, Kaine’s assertion reinforced the narrative of Trump’s lack of respect for women.
Meanwhile, Pence's avowal of a "culture of life" that ends Roe v. Wade and makes abortion illegal nationwide surely buoyed social conservatives. But that voting bloc is already a GOP staple. Pence didn't win a single new vote with his answer, even if social conservatives rested easier last night.
Watch the exchange:
Governor, why don't you trust women to make this choice for themselves? We can encourage people to support life, of course we can, but why don't you trust women, why doesn't Donald Trump trust women to make this choice for themselves? That's what we ought to be doing in public life. Living our lives of faith or motivation with enthusiasm and excitement. Convincing each other, dialoguing with each other about important moral issues of the day. But on fundamental questions of morality, we should let women make their own decisions.