by common consensus mike pence did well in the vice presidential debate , and many people are saying the man at the top of the gop ticket, donald trump, is none too pleased. <u+201c>pence won overall, but lost with trump,<u+201d> a <u+201c>senior trump adviser<u+201d> tells cnbc<u+2019>s john harwood an hour or so after the debate ended. <u+201c>he can<u+2019>t stand to be upstaged.<u+201d> at roughly the same time, the puffington host<u+2019>s sam stein tweeted: <u+201c>cnn<u+2019>s john king, reporting from a source close to trump, that the reviews that pence did better then he did won<u+2019>t go over well with trump.<u+201d> this is pretty thin stuff, is it not? it<u+2019>s based on anonymous sources<u+2014>or maybe a single source, as it<u+2019>s possible harwood and king were talking to the same person. it does not appear as if the source or sources were describing trump<u+2019>s response, only anticipating it; king<u+2019>s source, assuming stein<u+2019>s paraphrase is accurate (we couldn<u+2019>t find the transcript of postdebate commentary on cnn<u+2019>s website), is explicit on that point. follow james on twitter it falls into the category of amusing gossip<u+2014>though we suppose it<u+2019>s possible the trump campaign put it out deliberately in order to set up expectations of an erratic trump reaction, against which trump<u+2019>s actual response would look statesmanlike. and there were no 3 a.m. trump tweets lashing out at pence. just after the debate, he tweeted : <u+201c>mike pence won big. we should all be proud of mike!<u+201d> then, at 9:28 a.m. et today : <u+201c>the constant interruptions last night by tim kaine should not have been allowed. mike pence won big!<u+201d> (to be sure, it is funny that trump would complain about interruptions.) but ezra klein of the young-adult website vox went with the story in today<u+2019>s early hours: that was pure speculation, though trump<u+2019>s initial postdebate tweet, not noted by klein, supported the pat-on-the-back theory. klein<u+2019>s conclusion, though, is priceless, and also emblematic of how journalism has gone badly wrong during this campaign: <u+201c>it perhaps bears noting that the fact that these reports are even remotely plausible speaks to the immaturity of the republican nominee, and his manifest unfitness for office.<u+201d> the <u+201c>fact<u+201d> that the <u+201c>reports<u+201d> are <u+201c>plausible<u+201d> is a fact about klein <u+2014>he is willing to believe them<u+2014>not about trump. according to klein, his own willingness to believe these unverifiable claims about trump is evidence that his broader anti-trump bias is well-founded. we would say his willingness to believe them is part and parcel of his bias. that said, we would also acknowledge that trump benefited from his own absence on the debate stage. like hillary clinton in last week<u+2019>s presidential debate, kaine spent much of his time baiting his counterpart with various accusations (some true, some not) about trump. unlike trump, pence seldom took the bait, instead turning the discussion to policy or to mrs. clinton<u+2019>s manifold corruptions. it<u+2019>s an example trump would do well to follow in the remaining two debates, this coming sunday and two weeks from tonight. clearly the clinton-kaine campaign<u+2019>s strategy for the debates is to keep the focus on trump<u+2019>s shortcomings, real and alleged, and trump<u+2019>s defensiveness during the last hour of last week<u+2019>s debate permitted that approach to succeed. when pence declined to cooperate, kaine showed no signs of having a plan<u+00a0>b. we found pence to be more impressive than any candidate who ran for president this year, in either party. the comparison may be unfair: pence never had to debate trump, and the multicandidate primary debate format tends to make everyone look small. but we saw a bit of reagan in pence, the white hair notwithstanding. with his calm demeanor and soothingly authoritative voice, he came across as serious and mature. as for kaine, he smiled a lot and was full of energy. but he didn<u+2019>t seem cheerful so much as pleased with himself, in the manner of an obsequious schoolboy keen to impress an authority figure. that was especially the case when he got through his set pieces about trump<u+2019>s taxes and his various outlandish comments. to which pence responded with a reaganesque disdain: <u+201c>did you work on that one a long time?<u+201d> he said at one point. <u+201c>because that had a lot of really creative lines in it.<u+201d> at one point pence even said, <u+201c>there they go again,<u+201d> reprising the most famous reagan line from his 1980 debate with jimmy carter. (reagan delivered it a lot better.) in july, after trump named pence as his running mate, the new york times published a profile titled <u+201c>mike pence: a conservative proudly out of sync with his times<u+201d>: we had something of the same feeling as we watched pence last night, not about his <u+201c>social conservatism<u+201d> or <u+201c>religiosity<u+201d> but about his style. he reminded us of a time when candidates for national office, especially republican ones, affected a serious and thoughtful<u+2014>critics would say stodgy<u+2014>demeanor. on the republican side, that time wasn<u+2019>t very long ago at all: mitt romney and paul ryan both fit the stereotype. by contrast, bill clinton and barack obama, each in his own way, cultivated a hip, loose rock-star persona. this was the year in which republican voters yielded to star power. pence is a comfort to those who don<u+2019>t think that was a good idea. metaphor alert <u+201c>[jon] stewart likely feared (with some justification) that the flirtation of <u+2018>straight<u+2019> journalism with infotainment would eventually degrade the more serious enterprise. unfortunately, as cable, satellite, and later the internet offered an exponential increase of choice in content to viewers, the pressure on every tent to offer its own wild animals and clown cars was probably inevitable. indeed, by the time stewart attacked <u+2018>crossfire,<u+2019> that particular horse had escaped the barn and boarded a ship setting sail on a sea of spilt milk. the name of that ship was the fox news channel.<u+201d><u+2014>warren henry, federalist, oct.<u+00a0>4 two websites in one! we blame george w. bush <u+201c>gary johnson blames geography for costly u.s. foreign interventions<u+201d><u+2014>headline, oregonian, oct.<u+00a0>4 the soft bigotry of low expectations <u+201c>trump campaign manager: bill clinton is <u+2018>our best surrogate<u+2019><u+00a0><u+201d><u+2014>headline, thehill.com, oct.<u+00a0>5 problem and solution<u+2014>i problem and solution<u+2014>ii problem and solution<u+2014>iii make that 3 make that 10 generalissimo francisco franco is still dead omg, smh <u+201c>cno bans <u+2018>a2ad<u+2019> as jargon<u+201d><u+2014>headline, defense news, oct.<u+00a0>3 hey, kids! what time is it? <u+201c>john kerry<u+2019>s rallying cry to europe: it<u+2019>s time for <u+2018>pushback<u+2019><u+201d><u+2014>headline, politico.com, oct.<u+00a0>4 question and answer<u+2014>i question and answer<u+2014>ii news of the tautological <u+201c>as demand for cars falters, auto prices are poised to fall<u+201d><u+2014>headline, associated press, oct.<u+00a0>4 breaking news from 1992 <u+201c>al gore to campaign for clinton, hoping to galvanize young voters on climate change<u+201d><u+2014>headline, washington post, oct.<u+00a0>5 bottom story of the day <u+201c>no creepy clown sightings in el paso<u+201d><u+2014>headline, el paso times, oct.<u+00a0>4 how do you spell potato? sometimes you wonder if commentators<u+2014>or is that common taters<u+2014>think about what they write. this is from chris cillizza<u+2019>s roundup of debate winners on the washington post website: so two kids are throwing mashed potatoes at each other, and one of them is calm, cool and collected. what<u+2019>s wrong with that picture? follow @jamestaranto on twitter. join fans of best of the web today on facebook. subscribe to the best of the web email with one click. (carol muller helps compile best of the web. thanks to eric jensen, mordecai bobrowsky, tony lima, michael segal, mike lavender, irene deblasio, jackie harty, ethel fenig, michele schiesser, wes van fleet, david hallstrom, miguel rakiewicz, justin ware, debbie wells, ben johnson and mark metcalf. if you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com , and please include the url.)
clinton-keen - wsj
james taranto