In the past, the vice presidential debate has been regarded as inconsequential, a largely performative event that had little bearing on the outcome of the presidential contest. In all honesty, I can’t recall one moment in any VP debate I’ve ever watched that still lingers in my mind. The debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris could very well be the one time that changes. I spent the bulk of my professional career working with and for Republicans, until the events of 2016 recalibrated my political leanings and I joined the Democratic Party. While my political bias is overwhelmingly for Harris, I still have that reflex in my brain that wants to game out a plan or strategy for Pence. For him, the best case scenario is that the tradition of these debates being nonevents continues and that the evening, in many ways, mimics his tenure as vice president. Those are his goals, along with adjectives like uneventful, boring and stable. His time as President Donald Trump’s sidekick could charitably be described as “less is more” or “out of sight, out of trouble.”Good soldier vs. good prosecutorPence also understands that he is playing to an audience of one, the president. He must appear loyal and tough, a good soldier and someone who doesn’t add fuel to the wildfires Trump sets every single day. It is a narrow line to walk, but one that Pence has navigated skillfully for the better part of four years. I expect Pence will return to the familiar role of conservative warrior fighting against the ultraliberal agenda that wants to overrun America with radical ideas like the “Green New Deal” and “Medicare for All.” These are topics Pence would be sounding off on daily if he were still a conservative talk radio show host in Indiana. The fact that addressing climate change and giving more Americans access to affordable health care is what passes for “radical” in the GOP tells you everything that is wrong with this party, but I digress. Unlike the vice president, success for Kamala Harris is all about memorability. The former San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general is not looking to shrink into the background. She is not burdened by limitations or concerns about overshadowing the ticket (as opposed to 2016, when Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine was running with Hillary Clinton and was picked precisely because he was, as he put it, boring). She is there to prosecute the presidency of Donald Trump, and Mike Pence is on the witness stand.Harris-Pence vice presidential debate: It’s hugely important, and not just because Trump has COVIDWhen Pence invokes his Christian faith to claim some semblance of moral clarity, Harris must redirect to Trump’s heinous use of a church and Bible for a photo op after unleashing tear gas on peaceful protesters. When Pence repeats the familiar “law and order” refrain, Harris must press Pence on Trump’s tax returns. When Pence talks about the Supreme Court and the “sanctity of life,” Harris must move the conversation toward the more than 210,000 Americans dead as a result of COVID-19. Biden and Harris can run up the scoreWe know from Trump’s debate tantrum that getting him to answer a question directly and truthfully is all but impossible. This could well be the one and only time the Biden-Harris campaign has the opportunity to press for direct answers on the debate stage and not be overrun by interruptions, rude comments or bizarre behavior. Unlike Trump, Pence is a conventional politician who will conduct and carry himself the way that previous candidates who stood on that stage before him all did. Trump-Biden presidential debate: Once is enough. Please make it stop.He will speak with conviction; he won’t be obnoxious. In many ways, he will give the kind of performance that “traditional” conservatives wish Donald Trump were capable of delivering. Pence’s goal is to give that kind of performance to keep them on board and to resist the temptation to jump ship to Joe Biden. For the Trump-Pence ticket, this is the stop-the-bleeding debate. For the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket, this is about keeping the lead and running up the score. Pence is in the unenviable position of having to defend the indefensible. The reality is the facts and truth are not on his side. Harris must be aggressive and press that advantage. While Pence will try to shift the battle to conservative vs. liberal, Harris must relentlessly frame the debate on the grounds of life vs. death, truth vs. lie, science vs. fiction. Kurt Bardella, a senior adviser for the Lincoln Project and a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors, was the spokesperson and senior adviser for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Republicans from 2009-13 and left the GOP to become a Democrat in 2016. Follow him on Twitter: @kurtbardella
