Tim Kaine unleashed an onslaught of attacks against Mike Pence and Donald Trump during Tuesday's debate that wasn't entirely typical for such a Dadly candidate. His performance took some political observers by surprise and Pence was widely viewed as winning on style points, if not substance. But Kaine played the good soldier onstage, doing exactly what he had been coached to do—rack up a series of distinct moments that would yield shareable post-debate fodder for days if not weeks. Abby Phillip writes:
Armed with pre-planned Web videos, television ads and tweets, the campaign has used key debate moments this week and last as a cudgel against the Republican ticket, showing a level of discipline and organization largely absent from Donald Trump and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s campaign.
“Kaine had a very clear and simple plan for the debate: remind a national televised audience of all of the offensive things Trump has said and done in this campaign,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to President Obama.
“The Clinton campaign was smart enough to know that who ‘wins’ or ‘loses’ the VP debate doesn’t move votes. Instead it’s an opportunity to communicate a message to a very large audience.”
“I don’t see a single thing that Pence did that moved the needle for Trump in any way,” he added.
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Pfeiffer couldn't be more right on that last point. Pence may have eased the consciences of people who were already likely to vote for Trump, but he didn't open up any new avenues among critical voting blocs like college-educated women and people of color.
Immediately following the debate, the Clinton campaign started a social media push on hillaryclinton.com/literallytrump, a site dedicated to all the horrific things that have sprung from Trump's lips. It's no accident that the first Trump utterance highlighted is one about punishing women who have abortions and the next is his call for a "deportation force" to expel some 16 million undocumented immigrants from the country. Every point is immediately shareable on Facebook or Twitter.
The Clinton camp used a similar approach to the first presidential face off between Clinton and Trump.
Clinton had memorized Trump’s past statements down to his very language: “He even said: ‘Well, if there were nuclear war in East Asia, well that’s fine. Have a good time, folks.’ ”
“Wrong,” Trump interjected. “It’s lies.”
Then rolled the clip from a rally earlier in the year where Trump said, “Good luck, folks, enjoy yourself.”
This Sunday's debate will be a little less scripted in the sense that you never know exactly how a town hall will unfold. But Trump has been getting tips from constituent whisperer Chris Christie while Clinton's been huddling with the debate team that prepped her for last week.
Asked after an exhaustive session with Clinton at her home in Washington on Wednesday how the day went, her adviser Ron Klain replied simply, “Five hours.”
Can you imagine Trump doing anything at all for five whole hours?