{"id":4395,"date":"2016-10-04T18:54:11","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T23:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/?p=4395"},"modified":"2016-10-04T21:36:04","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T02:36:04","slug":"the-vice-presidential-candidate-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/2016\/10\/04\/the-vice-presidential-candidate-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vice Presidential Candidate Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Mike<\/a>
Mike Pence (R) and Tim Kaine (D) square off on Oct. 4 in the first and only US Vice Presidential candidate debate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tonight is the first and only scheduled Vice Presidential Candidate debate for the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election cycle. Meeting on the stage will be the Republican VP candidate, Gov. Mike Pence, and the Democratic VP candidate, Sen. Tim Kaine. I’ll live blog this evening if there is anything of particular note that leaps out at me, but here is what I expect:<\/p>\n

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  1. Remember, we are not voting for VPs… we are voting for the people at the top of the ticket. For these parties, those people are Donald Trump (R) and Sec. of State Hillary Clinton (D). While the VPs may come off as more likeable or informed than the top of the ticket, who cares? When you vote, you’re voting for the Presidential Candidate. Other than needing to break ties in the Senate or take over if the President is unable to execute their duties, there isn’t much of a bar the VP candidates have to cross.<\/li>\n
  2. That said, expect the VP Candidates each to attach the top of the ticket of the other party. If they’re smart politicians, they will always take the fight to the top of the other party’s ticket. Nobody really cares about the VP candidates scoring points against one another; what matters is a bruising of the other party’s Presidential Candidate.<\/li>\n
  3. From a scientist’s perspective, the Republicans are a mess this year and the Democrats are generally in good shape. By that, I mean that the policies expressed by the Republicans regarding issues where science is a leading player (e.g. whether or not to act on Climate Change, how to shape the Energy Economy) are largely unaligned or anti-aligned with the best science; the Democrats are generally aligned well this year, though it’s never perfect. Pence has a history of expressing a misunderstanding of the fundamentals of biology, which underpins all of the successful medical procedures known to our species and our total understanding of the biological world. He’s often advocated for watering down science by introducing one branch of one religion’s beliefs into the science classroom. Kaine has little such nonsense in his past statements. Watch for Pence to be sticking to personal or party ideologies on issues where science is a leading component of the issue: the environment, energy, and climate policy. Democrats have their anti-science demons, too: watch for Kaine to make missteps on food policy, for instance.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    With that in mind, let’s relax until the event begins at 9pm US Eastern Time.<\/p>\n

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    19:15<\/h1>\n

    The fact-checkers are going to be fighting a war on two fronts: streams of nonsense from the VP candidates, and the usual flood of nonsense from Donald Trump in parallel.<\/p>\n

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    It appears we'll have to be monitoring @realDonaldTrump<\/a>'s Twitter feed tonight. The GOP nominee has said he'll be live tweeting. pic.twitter.com\/aEysAUtBrk<\/a><\/p>\n

    — PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) October 5, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n