Debate coach: Defending Trump? Too much for Pence
(CNN) — Last night, Tim Kaine and Mike Pence took up their most public roles yet as surrogates for their leaders in the vice presidential debate.
Knowing this, they each had three roles:
First, defend the top of your ticket. Second, attack the top of the other ticket. Finally, prove you are capable of being president. Once I got past the interruptions, here's what I heard.
Defend the top of your ticket
Mike Pence: D-
Pence was clearly uncomfortable. This reminds me of so many debates my teams have had. In every debate, we are a team of two members. When one of my debaters is young or inexperienced, they make a lot of mistakes that the older member tries to overcome in the final speech. That's precisely what happened here. Trump, in his stump speeches and the first presidential debate, was like my younger, inexperienced debaters, just saying things without thinking about the ramifications. Pence was like my seasoned veterans, trying to gloss over, re-explain, and even change the direction of the answers given by their partner.
Unfortunately, it usually leads to double-turns. (A double-turn is when a team directly contradicts something they've said earlier.)
Since Pence didn't want to contradict Trump, his only other option was silence. And it was painful to watch him getting hammered again and again by Kaine. Kaine even asked, "How can you defend that?" multiple times on these subjects: -- The Trump insult about John McCain and prisoners of war
-- The Trump insult about the Indiana judge not being qualified because of his heritage
-- The Trump birther nonsense
-- The Trump claim that more countries getting nukes is a good thing
-- The Trump argument questioning NATO and alliances
-- Trump's (and Pence's) comments about how Vladimir Putin is a strong leader
-- Trump's taxes
-- Trump's line that Mexico is sending criminals, drug dealers and rapists across the border
In debate terms, Pence got "spread out of the debate." There were too many attacks and he had too few answers for them. Plus, his heart wasn't there. Pence defended his own positions just fine; defending Trump was another thing. Multiple times, I thought he just gave up. He seemed frustrated, saying "did you work on that for a long time?" and "don't put words in my mouth." Unfortunately, it was Trump who put the words there, and Trump's own words were Pence's undoing.
continued here http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/05/opinions/debate-coach-pence-kaine-graham-opinion/
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