For those of you that watched the Oct. 1 debate between Gov. Walz and Sen. Vance, you have come away with your own conclusions and opinions, but for those of you that did not for whatever reason, I commend you to see a replay of it. Being an independent, I found it refreshing to see civility between two political “combatants.” And, yes, I would agree that Vance came across slicker and smoother and, well, more polished than Walz, but I would have expected that from a Yale law graduate as is Vance.
I have debated and lectured with many such individuals during my half century+ of legal practice, writings, and academia. If I can use a metaphor, however, consider the debate a 10-round boxing match. I would have scored it for Vance in rounds 1-6 (Walz was slow out of the gates). But we always hope for a knockout blow before a winner’s hand and arm are raised by the referee at the end of the 10th round. Why should Walz arm have been raised? As the reason, four items stick out, two in particular.
First was the border and the immigration/migrant questions. Vance could not get over the fact that his running mate, Trump, through his sycophants in Congress, did not want to see the bipartisan border bill get a vote, even though it was the toughest and broadest in years. Trump wanted it as an election campaign issue, not one to give the voters through the Biden administration. Need I say more about Trump being so self-centered and not caring about us in the trenches?
Next, Vance outrightly lied about not having in his past proposed a nationwide abortion ban. That bold-face no-no struck at the hearts of many million female voters, even us guys who support the right of a woman to her own body and reproductive healthcare.
Third, and the most outrageous, was that Vance could not, or would not, say that the 2020 presidential election was NOT rigged or fraught with election fraud sufficient to overturn the election. In this regard, Vance was merely preaching to an audience of one, Trump. But Trump gets only one vote come Nov. 5 and we who know facts from fiction know Biden won fair and square.
And, finally, Vance kept saying that his running mate wanted to see ACA (Affordable Care Act, once known as “Obamacare”, that now insures 45 million including for pre-existing conditions) stay as the law of the land. How false that was or just the Yalie being intentionally misleading! I have some authority in what I am saying here since I was part of advising Members of Congress as the ACA was crafted and then passed in March 2010. And thereafter, it survived scores of Republican-led legal challenges all the way to the Supreme Court, including with Trump in tow.
While the needle of who we want sitting in the Oval Office next Jan. 20 may not have moved much after the debate, it was Walz that scored the knock out punch.
Miles Zaremski is a resident of the Village of Dunedin.
