The Vice Presidential candidates' debate: Tie color, emotions, and Putin

05.10.2016
USA

The debate of potential Us vice-presidential candidates, which took place last night on October 4th, differed from the debate of Trump and Clinton in that it had a lot more emotional tension. Timothy Kaine and Michael Pence were much more aggressive in their rhetoric, interrupting each other and neither candidate held back.

Vladimir Putin as a factor in American politics

Democrat Timothy Kaine repeatedly reminded the audience that Pence's running mate Trump had given several compliments to Vladimir Putin, in particular when Trump said that Putin was the best leader for his own country, than Obama has been for the United States. In response, Pence said that this was due to the ''weak and helpless politics'' of US presidential candidates Hillary Clinton - that it is Obama that has awakened ''Russian aggression''. Pence said that Trump's proposition is directed against Obama and his team, rather than as something supportive of Putin.

Primitive rhetoric of the Democrats

The Western media and some experts say that instead of focusing on the problems of the US population, Kaine constantly criticized Donald Trump on a personal level. Hillary Clinton considers Trump a threat to national security and campaigns on the idea that he is a person who humiliates women and minorities, and, presumably, does not pay taxes. At the same time, attacks from the Republican side on Clinton are based on her use of a personal e-mail server and the extremely unsuccessful health reform carried out by the Obama administration, which Kaine was unable to give an adequate response to.

Media neutrality

Unlike the first debate between Trump and Clinton, the major Western media outlets showed a lot of restraint and clearly did not support any of the vice presidential candidates. Despite this, the CNN website, the main mouthpiece of the Democrats, once again attacked Trump. An article about the debate carried the headline "Will Trump learn from Pence's debate prep?" The running joke in journalist media is that CNN stands for the ''Clinton News Network''.

Tie color component

Color plays a special role in US politics, and also in the presidential race. What tie a candidate chooses is of fundamental importance. Despite the fact that the color red began to be associated with the Republican party beginning in 2000 with Bush, who launched the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Trump's running mate Michael Pence came to the debate wearing a blue tie. At the same time, Kaine alternately came out in a bright red tie, which immediately brought us to recall Clinton's bright red suit during the first debate. Blue is a color associated with moderation and reasonableness. For the last fifteen years, it has been the color of the Democrats, but now Clinton and the team are taking an aggressive posture, even to the 'right' of Republicans, and have appropriated this color for themselves, perhaps to communicate their hawkishness.

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