http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/04/opinion/campaign-stops/speak-up-mr-vice-presidential-candidate-we-can-barely-hear-you.html 2016-10-04 09:52:09 Speak Up, Mr. Vice Presidential Candidate. We Can Barely Hear You. For Tim Kaine and Mike Pence, nothing can be said to be certain, except debates and taxes. === Gail Collins Arthur Brooks Gail Arthur Gail But obviously, the vice presidency is a big deal. After all, 14 vice presidents have ended up in the White House. You could argue that it’s even more important given the ages of the current presidential nominees. Although I don’t think we’ve had a lot of instances of chief executives expiring from natural causes since the capital cleaned up its water supply. Arthur Gail Arthur Gail Arthur Gail Arthur Even after the 12th Amendment changed that arrangement, there were still a lot of unhappy shotgun weddings, politically speaking. Andrew Jackson hated his former vice president John Calhoun so much that he threatened to hang him. Gail But who knows what the next vice president will be called on to do. Isn’t there speculation that if Trump gets elected, he’ll just turn the job over to Mike Pence? Arthur Gail Arthur: Gail Arthur Gail: Arthur Gail Arthur A lot of people have this implicit belief that America is becoming basically a nation of three groups: tech entrepreneurs, burger flippers and welfare recipients. But that’s only true if we continue to educate kids the way we currently do. If Vice President Tom Cohn takes up this cause, that will be great. But back to the debate tonight. Give me your thoughts. Gail I’m presuming, Arthur, that you read the big Times story over the weekend. What was your reaction? Arthur: Gail And the story has to be even less attractive, given the fact that he’s still keeping the rest of his returns secret. Arthur Gail Arthur Gail Arthur Gail Arthur The lack of movement in the polls surprised a lot of people, but not Conversation readers. Last week we looked at This should be doubly true tonight in the vice-presidential debate. It’s hard to imagine what would move polls a lot after this one, especially if the audience is small. Gail Arthur But over to some advice. What does Kaine need to do tonight? Gail But I would be happy if they talked about taxes. Excellent time for Kaine to bring up Trump’s own returns. Then it would be on to the Trump tax-cut plan, which makes no sense whatsoever. How about you? Arthur Gail Arthur Gail Arthur In contrast, Pence’s job is to say that Trump isn’t actually scary. He’ll have to explain how he thinks Trump’s ideas will help people, including those who wouldn’t traditionally vote for Trump; explain how Trump’s rhetoric isn’t actually so extreme if you translate it into Russian and then back again, or some such. Gail Are you going to be having a debate-watching party, Arthur? Or will you be at home? I’ve never asked you if you had a pet, but I’m thinking it’ll be nice to have the dog sleeping beside my chair when all family and friends have slunk away. Arthur Talk to you soon, Gail, in the aftermath of debate No. 2.