Why Kaine's effort failed in debate with Pence

Guy Benson:
According to a focus group put together by longtime pollster Frank Luntz, Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence overwhelmingly won the debate against rival Democrat Tim Kaine in Farmville, Virginia Tuesday night.
...
The link is loaded with graphs and tweets that reflect the response of the group.

What I noticed is that Kaine appeared to be prepared to debate Trump and not Pence.  He was clearly instructed to make the debate about Trump's perceived gaffes and wanted to get Pence on the defensive about them, and Pence, unlike Trump did not take the bait.  He kept going back to the issues and he articulated the campaigns position much better than Trump has.

Pence explanation of the campaign's position on immigration was brilliant and it clearly frustrated Kaine who wanted to talk about a "deportation force."  Where Kaine wanted Pence to talk about Trump's insults of others, Pence just ignored him for the post part and talked about issues and this clearly frustrated Kaine and probably led to his interruptions.

John Podhoretz also critiqued the debate:

Mike Pence wiped the floor with Tim Kaine — but does it matter?

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