Press.voanews.com
Now it's back to
the main contenders in the U.S. presidential campaign, with Democrat Hillary
Clinton and Republican Donald Trump set for their second face-to-face debate on
Sunday.
Their running
mates, Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine and Indiana Republican Governor
Mike Pence, sparred for 90 minutes late Tuesday, trading barbs against their
top-of-the-ticket opponents. While most analysts and a quick poll judged Pence
the winner, the morning-after verdict was that ultimately the debate would not
prove consequential for voters five weeks ahead of the November 8 election.
"Pence had
a softer and more confident approach," Georgetown University political
scientist Stephen Wayne told VOA. "Kaine was hyped and over-prepared for
the debate. Pence did better, but the overall effect will be negligible."
University of
Maryland political scientist James Gimpel agreed, saying, "The betting
right now is that nothing has changed" from recent days. A raft of new
national political surveys show that Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of state,
has regained about a four-percentage-point edge over Trump, a brash real estate
tycoon making his first run for elected office, and also has moved ahead in
several key battleground states that will determine the overall outcome.
At their
face-off, Kaine recited a host of contentious statements Trump has made over
his past 16 months of campaigning -- on immigration, taxes, foreign policy and
other issues -- and attempted to goad Pence into defending them. But Pence
repeatedly deflected Kaine's taunts and instead attacked Clinton's performance
as the country's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013, saying her policies have
contributed to international terrorism and instability in the Middle East.
Not
surprisingly, both Clinton and Trump applauded their running mates' debate performances.
"In Mike Pence's defense, we wouldn't want to defend Donald Trump,
either," the Clinton campaign said in one Twitter comment. In another,
Clinton said, "Lucky to have a partner like Tim Kaine, who stood up for
our shared vision tonight, instead of trying to deny it."
Analysts say it
is an open question whether Trump can duplicate Pence's disciplined debate
performance when he next faces off with Clinton in a townhall-style format,
where a handful of undecided voters will get a chance to ask questions, along
with television news moderators.
At their first
debate, widely seen as a decisive victory for Clinton, she was able to keep
Trump on the defensive, attacking him over his defiance of a four-decade U.S.
political tradition in refusing to release his tax returns, his long-time slurs
against women, and his years-long campaign to prove the debunked theory that
President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and is not a U.S. citizen.
Clinton also
condemned Trump's complaints against a former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado,
that she had gained weight in the months after she won the pageant that he once
owned. He continued to deride Machado in the days after the debate.
Contributing to
Trump's rocky post-debate week, The New York Times divulged three pages from
his 1995 tax returns showing that he had declared $916 million in business
losses that year, a financial setback so staggering that it might have allowed
him to legally offset millions in dollars of his income over an 18-year stretch
and avoid paying any income taxes.
Trump described
his tax avoidance as "brilliant," while Clinton mocked his business
acumen for losing such a large sum in a single year, largely because of Trump's
failed casino ventures in Atlantic City, New Jersey, along the Atlantic Ocean
shoreline.
Looking ahead to
Sunday's debate, University of Virginia political analyst Geoffrey Skelley,
said that for Trump "being better prepared would be a good thing. A major
point for him is that voters just don't see him as presidential. Donald Trump
has to counter expectations as to how he'd act as president."
Skelley said
Trump "was pretty good for the first 15-20 minutes" of his September
26 encounter with Clinton, "but then fell off the rails" in the face
of Clinton's gibes. "The whole question is whether he can control
himself," Skelley said.
Advice for Trump
Wayne said,
"No. 1, he has to stay focused and become less defensive, hit her
vulnerabilities. He has to take a lesson from his vice presidential candidate
and sound a little bit more soothing ... generally show leadership."
Gimpel said,
"He has to have more message discipline, not get bogged down in
tabloid-like controversies. Hillary Clinton will be confident and in
command."
With her growing
lead in several key election states, U.S. polling analysts now give Clinton as
much as an 80 percent chance of becoming the country's 45th president and its
first female commander in chief when Obama leaves office in late January.