It’s doubtful that this week’s debate between Vice Presidential nominees Tim Walz and JD Vance will command quite the same attention as the debate between the nominees: Vice President Harris and former President Trump. But historically, tilts between the running mates are often more pugilistic. A lot feistier. More fun to watch. And sometimes, more memorable.
It’s hard to say why the undercard can be more intriguing than the main event. But first round playoff games in hockey are often better matches than the Stanley Cup Finals. I’ve long asserted that the American League and National League Championship Series is generally more competitive baseball than what you experience during the World Series.
Perhaps it has something to do with the vice presidential candidates introducing themselves to the audience. They simply aren’t as well known.
‘Who am I? Why am I here?,’ quipped late Rear Admiral James Stockdale when independent Presidential candidate Ross Perot tapped him as his 1992 running mate.
Stockdale’s folksy line immediately drew laughter and applause from the crowd gathered that night in Atlanta.
‘I’m not a politician. Everybody knows that. So don’t expect me to use the language of the Washington insider,’ said Stockdale from his lectern wedged between future President Clinton’s running mate, then-Sen. Al Gore, D-Tenn., and Vice President Dan Quayle.
While Gore and Quayle quarreled, their verbal fusillades caromed back and forth in front of Stockdale. He was mostly a mute bystander. At one point, trying to get in a word edgewise, Stockdale abruptly blurted that he felt like he was in the ‘middle of a Ping-Pong’ match.
Later in the debate, moderator Hal Bruno of ABC News asked if mudslinging tactics were ‘necessary’ in the campaign. Stockdale replied he didn’t hear the question.
‘I didn’t have my hearing aid turned on. Tell me again,’ Stockdale requested of Bruno, again triggering howls from the audience.
Sometimes the VP candidates must feel each other out.
‘The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight,’ said then-Vice President Dick Cheney to former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., then John Kerry’s running mate at the 2004 VP debate.
Running mates sometimes try to appear more down-to-Earth than those at the top of the ticket.
‘Nice to meet ya,’ declared former Alaska Governor and 2008 VP nominee Sarah Palin (R) as she shook the hand of then-Senator Biden on stage in St. Louis. ‘Can I call you Joe?’
‘You can call me Joe,’ responded the future president with a smile.
Mr. Biden tried to exude an ‘aw, shucks,’ lunchpail personae in the 2012 VP debate. He deployed lay language when trading barbs with GOP VP nominee and future House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc.
‘When we look weak, our adversaries are more willing to test us. They’re more brazen in their attacks,’ said Ryan.
‘With all due respect, that’s a bunch of a malarkey,’ countered the future President.
Palin tried the same thing, using phrases like ‘doggone it’ and winking at the audience not once, but four times, to punctuate her responses.
Vice Presidential debates are often stocked with wry humor.
‘If you won’t use any football stories, I won’t tell any of my warm and humorous stories about chlorofluorocarbon abatement,’ promised then-Vice President Gore during his debate with GOP VP nominee Jack Kemp in 1996.
Gore was known for his views on global warming and environmental policy. A former congressman and Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Kemp also starred at quarterback for the San Diego Chargers and Buffalo Bills in the American Football League before it merged with the NFL.
A lot of people would pay to be a fly on the wall during some of the debate prep. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., has been playing Walz during the sessions with Vance. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has portrayed Vance during his rehearsals with Walz.
But you don’t even have to be a fly on the wall for these debates. Sometimes a fly just shows up – and lands on the head of former Vice President Mike Pence. Such was the case when Pence debated Vice President Harris four years ago in Salt Lake City.
But Vice Presidential debates do grow testy.
Besides the fly, many best remember the 2020 Harris/Pence debate for the Vice President repeatedly declaring ‘I’m speaking,’ beseeching Pence to wait his turn.
Viewers also remember Pence and Democratic VP nominee and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., talking all over one another during their 2016 debate.
In the first televised VP debate in Houston in 1976, GOP Vice Presidential nominee and future Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., depicted World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam were ‘Democrat wars.’ He then added that ‘the pardon of Richard Nixon is behind us. Watergate’s behind us.’
‘I think Sen. Dole has richly earned his reputation as a hatchet man tonight,’ responded future Vice President and then-Sen. Walter Mondale, D-Minn.
And future President George H.W. Bush drew the ire of female voters when he appeared to speak condescendingly to 1984 Democratic Vice Presidential nominee and Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, D-N.Y., – the first woman to ever appear on a major party ticket.
‘Let me help you Miss Ferraro about the difference between Iran and the embassy in Lebanon,’ said Bush.
‘Let me just say, first of all, that I almost resent, Vice President Bush, your patronizing attitude that you have to teach me about foreign policy,’ shot back Ferraro.
The congresswoman noted she had served nearly six years in the House by that point.
But one zinger from a Vice Presidential debate is without question one of the best lines in the history of American politics.
During the 1988 campaign, the press corps and some in the public jeered at Quayle as Bush 41’s running mate. His youthful looks and frequent verbal faux pas made Quayle seem unprepared for the job. Quayle was 41 years old at the time. But he had already served nearly eight years in the Senate and four in the House. To compensate, Quayle often spun his youth in the same way that late President ‘Jack Kennedy’ captured the imagination of Americans.
Compared to Quayle, 1988 Vice Presidential nominee and Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Tex., presented himself as poised, stately and steady. Bentsen and his handlers were well aware of Quayle’s ‘Jack Kennedy’ comparisons. And so during the debate in Omaha, Neb., Bentsen waited for Quayle to bait his own trap.
‘I have far more experience than many others that sought the office of Vice President of this country. I have as much experience in the Congress as Jack Kennedy did when he sought the presidency,’ said Quayle.
Bentsen pounced.
‘I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy,’ said Bentsen.
The auditorium erupted into hales of applause and shouts.
Quayle stewed, staring daggers at his Senate colleague.
‘That was really uncalled for, Senator,’ fumed Quayle.
Bentsen’s line has echoed for decades, lampooned on everything from Saturday Night Live to 30 Rock.
Just one historic footnote. JFK and Bentsen never served together in the Senate. But they were members of the House during the same period in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Running mates have two responsibilities. They must demonstrate that they’re ready to step into the main job. And they aren’t supposed to overshadow the actual nominee. Yet with vice presidential debates, the one-liners often do just that.