Kaine, Pence clash in vice presidential debate

U.S. vice presidential hopefuls Tim Kaine and Mike Pence launched into their only debate of the campaign Oct. 4, immediately clashing on the reputations, experiences and policies of their bosses chasing the White House.

Democrat Kaine and Republican Pence squared off to highlight their capabilities as the men who could be a heartbeat away from the presidency, but essentially they were on stage fighting a proxy war for their running mates five weeks before Election Day on Nov. 8.

Kaine, a U.S. senator from Virginia, promoted himself as a deeply experienced local, state and national politician who would be the “right hand person” for Clinton, whom he described as trustworthy and more than capable in the role of commander in chief.

“The thought of Donald Trump as commander in chief scares us to death,” Kaine said.

“I can’t imagine how Governor Pence can defend the insult-driven, selfish, me-first style of Donald Trump,” Kaine said, vocalizing his primary strategy of forcing Pence to on to the back foot about the brash Republican billionaire at every turn.

An imperturbable Pence, the governor of Indiana and a Christian conservative, calmly shot back.

“You would know a lot about an insult-driven campaign,” he said, highlighting Clinton’s relentless criticism of Trump and how she painted half of her Republican rival’s supporters as “deplorables.”

“We see entire portions of the world, particularly the wider Middle East, spinning out of control. The situation we’re watching hour by hour in Syria today is the result of the weak foreign policy that Hillary Clinton helped lead in this administration and create.”

A CNN/ORC snap poll declared Pence the winner with 48 percent support, compared with Kaine’s 42 percent.

Meanwhile, a recent poll by Reuters/Ipsos shows that nearly half of Americans agree with Trump saying paying no income tax would make him “smart.” But more people think it is “selfish,” and “unpatriotic.”

Some 67 percent of Americans said it is “selfish” for a presidential candidate to pay no taxes, while 61 percent said it is “unpatriotic,” according to the poll, which allowed respondents to pick more than one adjective to describe paying no taxes.

At the same time, the results showed some respect for a candidate who can figure out how to reduce their tax bill. Some 46 percent of Americans, including 35 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of Republicans, thought a presidential candidate who pays no taxes is “smart.”