[ad_1]
NEW YORK / OSLO (Dagbladet): Historically, it means “nothing,” according to a Norwegian expert from the United States, but this year’s vice presidential debate on Thursday night can still carry enormous significance.
Not necessarily for the outcome of the elections, but for the future.
Never before have Americans had to choose between the oldest presidential candidate in the United States through a newspaper, Democrat Joe Biden (77), and the second-oldest presidential candidate in the United States through a newspaper, Republican Donald Trump (74), who is also sick with a crown.
“It’s a terrifying prediction, but a real and important one: We can witness the next president of the United States in the vice presidential debate,” said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University and a former political adviser.
May have to take over
The same message is also carried by two other American experts that Dagbladet has interviewed.
They call it both “highly possible” and “not unlikely” that Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, or Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president and the Republican vice presidential nominee, will have to move into the White House before the next few Presidential elections of 2024.
– This year, voters know that they are very likely looking at one of the next presidents. In a few years, both Harris and Pence could be presidents. Nine vice presidents took office after the president’s death and Nixon’s resignation, says Hilmar Mjelde, a researcher at the Norce Research Center and an expert on the United States, of the vice presidential debate Thursday night.
Measuring terror for Trump
It is Mjelde who describes vice presidential debates as historically insignificant and says that the role of a vice president is largely dictated by the president.
– In the United States, the president is the only government in the country. The vice president only has the power that the president decides to give him. A vice president is, paradoxically, more influential when he resigns, precisely to assume the presidency, says Mjelde.
And at the same time, it is clear to him why this year’s vice-presidential debate is the subject of so much attention.
The vice presidential candidates focus when they are controversial, like Thomas Eagleton and Sarah Palin, or now, given the uncertainty surrounding both Trump and Biden.
see more
– Extremely important
While Mjelde and American Baker don’t think the vice presidential debate will have much of an impact, seasoned Democratic polling expert John Zogby is more uncertain.
– This is one of the vice-presidential debates where the most has been at stake. This is because the elections are very close and because we have two older men with health problems who are presidential candidates. So the vice presidential candidates become even more important, Zogby tells Dagbladet.
He says that about 3.5 percent of American voters have yet to decide who they want to vote for and that these voters can be decisive for the outcome.
– Therefore, it is extremely important for both sides that they manage to convince only a few thousand voters here and there, says Zogby.
see more
This is the debate
Then to the current vice presidential debate, which this year takes place in the Olympic city of Salt Lake City in Utah, a traditional Republican state, where Zogby believes the pressure is on Kamala Harris, the former public prosecutor.
– As a former prosecutor, she is seen as a woman with a very sharp edge. She’s probably intellectually superior to Pence, but she’s under pressure in this debate not to use this edge, Zogby says.
Baker agrees.
– Pence and Harris have very different styles. Harris perhaps should tone down the prosecutor. Maybe Pence should try to be a little more lively, says Baker.
Zogby also believes that Pence has several advantages, including experience.
– Pence has debated before. Although he is a conservative ideologue with little appeal to center-right voters, he also has a disarming style. It can seem warm and reassuring and therefore very difficult to attack, says Zogby.
In the shadow of Trump, many have also overlooked an important characteristic of Pence, Mjelde believes.
– Pence is an underrated communicator. He had his own radio show from 1994 to 1999: “The Mike Pence Show.”
