"Vice Presidents" Mike and Kamala rescue moderation

The value of the television debate held this morning at the University of Salt Lake City, in the state of Utah, is that we could have attended the first round of the presidential debate in 2024. The aspirants to the post of US vice-president represent the possible replacement of their two leading figures, Trump and Biden, who have entered their twilight years and seemingly worn out in a battle that is going to leave one of them shattered and without options for continuing in political activity.

Mike Pence's profile allows the runaway president to pull the strings, and is a guarantee of minimum credibility for the Republican candidacy, while Kamala Harris walks in the opposite direction from the former vice president: his radical defence of progressive principles seems to bring Biden out of his eternal lethargy. And those assumptions have been demonstrated in tonight's face-to-face.

Kamala is Californian and has Jamaican roots on her father's side and Indian roots on her mother's side. She is the progressive one within the electoral ticket with a more centrist Biden. She is a prosecutor and a senator, and she promises to be the face of the Democrats for many years because of what we have seen in the debate. Mike brings some sanity and stability to the Trump Administration, touched by schizophrenia and the president's impulses. A native of Columbus, Indiana, and a longtime evangelical Christian television host, he never agrees to be left alone with a woman who is not his wife, as his confession dictates.

The Utah debate has been won by Biden, according to the polls, a feeling that has stayed with all of us after the two hours of face-to-face, which has turned out to be much more polite than the one led by the leaders, much more moderate in approach and form. This is why we must consider that Harris has lost, because he has missed the opportunity to be more incisive with his opponent. 

First of all, the general purpose of both tickets must be analysed. The Democratic ticket insists that everyone should vote, and its notable supporters from the world of cinema and culture are doing the same, as if they fear that abstention will further harm Biden and take advantage of the mail-order gale that has already occurred. The Republicans, on the other hand, are asking for support from the same people who gave them their vote in 2016, in order to re-establish a majority in the Electoral College.

But the central issue and the first on the list of priorities is the fight against the virus, and that is why the debate has been marked by the positive response of the President and the other 30 people who were at the Rose Garden event and have been infected. Kamala had it easier than her boss in this area, because news of the contagion began to spread a few hours after the televised meeting between Trump and Biden in Cleveland.

Pence has put every apple in the COVID basket by reaffirming Trump's promise that there will be a vaccine in a very short time, even before the election date of November 3. But Harris has attacked him directly because of the (objectively) disastrous way the administration has handled this adverse health situation, so he had all the aces in his hand. Above all, one: his opponent tonight is the one in charge of managing the response to the virus. 

In the chapter on international policy, Kamala simplified the whole discourse by stating that it is a question of simple relations and that Americans should be faithful to the countries that have helped the USA, unlike Trump, who opened his arms to dictators. The opinion is debatable, as the president has just promoted the most important political agreements in decades in the Middle East. And the candidates have engaged in a controversy over whether or not Biden opposed the operation to eliminate the most wanted terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, nine years ago. The wounds of 9/11 are still raw.

The economic section has been the most lively, with a confrontation of clearly distinguishable models. The Republican is charging his opponent for the foreseeable tax increase in a country that deplores tax hikes and warns that the Democratic candidacy will abolish petrol (this is where this song comes from) and fracking, which has secured the United States' energy hegemony in recent years. The Democrat candidate has been unconvincing with respect to the tax policy Biden intends to pursue, though he has always wanted to stay ahead of his rival in defending an irreversible ecological transition.

In the nine segments into which the programme has been divided, with two minutes for each candidate's presentation, there have been few interruptions. The moderator was Susan Page, the journalist from USA Today, who managed to keep the debate much more clean than the one employed by Chris Wallace in the first round among the presidential candidates.

Viewers had the feeling that the acrylic dividing panels that separated the contestants much more than physically, was not a pleasant element to follow the general face-to-face shots. Much more annoying was the fly that landed on Pence's head for two minutes, its grey hair making it stand out much more from the insect and opening up a whole catalogue of possible journalistic metaphors.