Leubsdorf: Fewer fireworks this time

But the Minnesota governor slowed his cadence and sharpened his responses on the issues that favor Democrats, like abortion, health care, family leave and democracy, as Vance sought unconvincingly to pretend their differences were minimal.

For example, after claiming “Democrats have taken a very radical pro-abortion stance,” Vance sought to shift the emphasis to the need for “pursuing pro-family policies.” But Walz rejected his characterization, declaring, “We’re pro-women. We’re pro-freedom to make your own choice.”

At several points, Vance made the argument that Trump failed to make against Harris in their debate last month. “If Kamala Harris has such great plans for how to address middle-class problems, then she ought to do them now, not when asking for a promotion, but in the job the American people gave her three and a half years ago,” he said.

But Walz won the night’s sharpest direct exchange, when he challenged Vance to say something that Trump has refused to acknowledge: that he lost the 2020 election.

“Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance replied, changing the subject by claiming Harris threatened democracy with “censorship” of COVID policy critics. “That is a damning non-answer,” Walz countered.

That exchange hardly rose to the level of Republican Bob Dole’s 1976 denunciation of “Democrat wars” or Democrat Lloyd Bentsen’s 1988 put-down of Republican rival Dan Quayle’s effort to liken himself to John F. Kennedy.

And it came toward the end of their 97-minute encounter, right before their predictable closing statements in which Walz contrasted Harris’ “politics of joy” with Trump’s darker view and Vance blamed immigration and inflation problems on “Kamala Harris’ policies.”

If there was one surprise, it was that Tuesday’s debate was far less acrimonious than anticipated, mostly because Vance was far less aggressive in going after Walz than many had anticipated. And at times, the Minnesota governor — showing his lesser debating experience — didn’t challenge his assertions.

“JD Vance’s job tonight was to launder Trumpism for middle America, and for those undecided voters,” CNN anchor Abby Phillip observed. “And he was able to do it without getting a whole lot of pushback from Tim Walz.”

Here are other areas where that happened: On climate change, Vance did not answer when he was asked if he agreed with Trump that climate change was a “hoax.” Vance also sidestepped a question on Trump’s plan to deport millions of immigrants with the help of the U.S. military.

“Before we talk about deportations, we have to stop the bleeding,” he replied. “We have a historic immigration crisis because Kamala Harris started and said that she wanted to undo all of Donald Trump’s border policies.” Walz noted that Trump killed a bipartisan Senate plan to increase funds for border enforcement and revise asylum procedures.

Several controversies that have dogged them on the campaign trail never came up, like Walz’s National Guard service and Vance’s views on women. Forced to answer a question about his misstatements on his visits to China, Walz said only that he was a “knucklehead at times.”

Afterward, polls taken by CBS News and CNN produced identical verdicts on the debate. In the CBS poll, 42 percent said Vance won, 41 percent said Walz won and 17 percent called it a draw. The CNN score was 51-49 for Vance.

But as usual, it will take a while for any fallout to become evident.