Susan Page, the moderator of Wednesday night’s vice presidential debate, asked some terrific questions of Kamala Harris and Mike Pence.
Too bad Page didn’t attempt to make them answer them.
The 90-minute exchange between the Democratic and Republican running mates was notable for its relative civility — at least civil when compared to the food fight the week before between Donald Trump and Joe Biden — and the inability of the candidates, especially Pence, to stop talking when their time was up.
The millions of viewers who watched the debate should come away assured that either Harris or Pence could ably step into the Oval Office if circumstances demanded. Circumstances might, given the ages of Biden (77) and Trump (74) and the fact that, while Trump appears to be recovering fairly well from COVID-19, it’s still to be seen whether he might have some lingering health problems going forward as a result of the virus.
It was disappointing, however, that Page, the Washington bureau chief for USA Today, didn’t raise a whimper when the two vice presidential candidates would all but ignore the difficult questions posed to them and instead recite their prepared talking points.
Pence didn’t respond when asked if he thought global warming was an existential threat or what he would do if the Republicans lost in November and Trump refused to step down. Both Pence and Harris dodged questions about whether they had discussed — or thought they should discuss — with the men at the top of their respective tickets what would happen in the event of a “presidential disability.” Both wouldn’t say what abortion laws they would want their respective home states to adopt if Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion on demand nationwide, were overturned. And Harris, as did Biden the week before, would not say whether the Democrats would push to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court if Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed this year and Biden wins.
That last dodge was the only one that got any follow-up, and it came from Pence, not the moderator.
Afterward Page said she consciously decided not to press the candidates for answers if they avoided her questions the first time the questions were posed. She said she thought the dodging itself would be instructive to the viewers.
That’s a point, but not much of one. Most people already know that politicians don’t like to answer questions that make them uncomfortable. They don’t have to be allowed to skirt question after question before that becomes obvious.
Page had two primary jobs to perform as the debate’s moderator. She was supposed to enforce the rules of engagement, and to prompt both candidates to speak to not only the issues about which they want to talk but the ones they don’t. To accomplish the latter requires at times a little persistence from the questioner.
Page, as a veteran Washington journalist, should know that as well as anyone. Too bad that on what was probably the biggest public stage of her life, she seemed to have forgotten all of her training.
