Tim Kaine, Mike Pence, and Respect

This blog was originally published on Forbes as Tim Kaine, Mike Pence And Respect on Wednesday, October 5, 2016.

In advance of last night’s vice presidential debate, yesterday’s Daily Beast ran a post titled, “The Thrilla in Vanilla,” a characterization based on the personalities of Tim Kaine and Mike Pence, meant to establish what the blog called “the surreal Trump- and Clinton-free zone.”

Clearly, this was a response to the reverberations that the electorate is still feeling from the bitter animosity between presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in their first debate last week.

Here’s a brief perspective on just how bitter: In preparing for this post, I was surfing the web for background on political campaigns and came across a YouTube clip of the 2008 Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner, a prestigious non-partisan event at which then-presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain both spoke. The event took place less than three weeks before Election Day during what was another bitterly-fought campaign, yet each candidate was thoroughly respectful of the other. Not only respectful, but when each man made jokes about the other—and they made many—the other laughed and applauded!

What did we see last night? Far from vanilla, much closer to salsa—although not nearly as inflammatory as Clinton and Trump were—and by all indications will continue to be. That said, Tim Kaine and Mike Pence tried to be respectful, even in the many times they interrupted or disagreed with one another, in addressing one another as “Senator” and “Governor,” and in referencing one another’s families and faith. In fact, the latter produced not only respect, but a substantive and reasoned discussion on the last question of the evening, faith and abortion.

Unfortunately, that moment was overwhelmed by an evening that can be summed up in two words: defend and attack. Regardless of the question moderator CBS News’s Elaine Quijano asked, each candidate barely answered, if at all, and instead spun off to support of their candidate and attack the opponent.

Aretha Franklin once famously sang, “All I’m askin’ … Is for a little respect.”

So is the electorate.

This blog was originally published on Forbes as Tim Kaine, Mike Pence And Respect on Wednesday, October 5, 2016.