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How Will Tim Kaine Perform Tonight?

AP Photo / Chuck Burton

Virginia’s Senator, and Democratic vice Presidential candidate, Tim Kaine will be in the national spotlight this evening, when he debates Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate. What kind of performance is Kaine expected to deliver?

A review of Tim Kaine’s many debate performances shows a couple of consistent themes, things that are likely to emerge when he takes the stage with Indiana Governor Mike Pence in Farmville. One is counterintuitive.

“Now I’ll praise Republicans."

Yes. Tim Kaine will probably find some way of praising his opponent. This is classic Tim Kaine. He’s done this again and again during debates, like this one from 2012 with former Republican Senator George Allen:

“Republicans in the Senate and Democrats together passed a Farm Bill. Drought relief. Flood insurance. School lunch programs, good for kids and good for farmers."

But then Kaine is likely to turn the tables and go on offense.  

“But when the bill passed out of a bipartisan Senate, it went over to the House and the House decided to bottle it up until after Election Day."

Kaine is likely to take a different position on immigration than he did back in 2005, when he blamed the federal government for inaction on the issue.

“What I will do is stand up again and again and ask that the federal government just do what we pay them to do. The immigration problem isn’t because of lax border patrols between Fairfax and Herndon. That’s not the problem.”

One point of attack Kaine is likely to bring up is Pence’s support for Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which gave pizza parlors and wedding cake makers the ability to deny business to same-sex couples. Kaine opposed Virginia’s amendment banning same-sex marriage back in 2006, when George Allen lost the Senate seat Kaine now holds.

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