If there’s anything I’ve realized in my gradual understanding of my own institutional sexism, it’s that women really hate it when men talk over them and interrupt them. It’s a very bad quality that men just can’t seem to wrap their heads around. It’s really very obnoxious.
That, more than anything, is why this debate did nothing for Trump’s re-election prospects. Pence just kept on yammering, even when being told, by a female moderator, that he should shut up.
It’s just annoying, and women didn’t need to be reminded of it. But they were, repeatedly.
It happened over and over again. And Kamala Harris called him on it in the first half-hour, which was when everyone was paying attention.
Beyond the fly on the forehead, that’s the takeaway. Harris was not only competent but expert. She held her own, as she should have.
Pence lost by not gaining anything. And he really, really needed to win.