Mike Pence's Debate

There wasn't a single answer he couldn't deflect during the debate. Politicians frequently deflect, but Pence made deflection the cornerstone of his debate. It was so bad, I had to catalog the debate to show how the two candidates diverged in answering questions.

Here's an exhaustive list of every question in the debate and how Pence answered:

• On why Americans think Donald is erratic (asked 3x): Hillary created an unstable Middle East and is untrustworthy.
• Whether there is concern that both candidates' plans add to the federal debt: I balanced budgets as governor and we're going to cut taxes to spur growth.
• Regarding the apparent fairness of Donald avoiding having to pay taxes (asked 2x): This economy is struggling and Donald created tens of thousands of jobs.
• What happens when Social Security is no longer being able to pay out 100%: We're going to meet our obligations to our seniors by cutting taxes.
• On how to reduce the burden of cops: We're going to make sure that the police have the resources to maintain law and order, and we need to stop bad-mouthing police.
• On African-American Tim Scott (Republican Senator) getting stopped 7x by police because of bias: We need criminal sentencing reforms and support our police.
• What to do with illegal immigrants who haven't committed crimes: We need to secure our borders and remove criminal aliens.
• How millions of illegal immigrants will leave: We will build a wall below the ground and in the air and have strong enforcement in the country.
• Whether the world is safer or more dangerous today: The world is less safe; I was in DC on 9/11.
• How to stop domestic terrorism by US citizens (asked 2x): It begins with immigration reform, starting with extreme vetting and suspending refugee programs.
• On a cyber security surge: Hillary had a private server.
• On whether the US has a responsibility to protect innocent Syrians: US must show strong leadership with a built-up military, would set up safe zones and bomb Syrian military.
• Where Syrian safe zones would be set up and how to keep these Syrians safe: We need to strengthen US military after waking up the Russian bear.
• What would you do to counter Russian annexation of Crimea: We need to stop what's going on in Syria and stop working with Iran.
• Why Putin will respect Trump: Strength. We're bigger.
• How to stop NK's nuclear program: Rebuild and modernize the military to create "peace through strength".
• Toughest conflict between your religion and public practice: Pro-life policies are difficult to enact when people are pro-choice.
• Upon winning, what would you do to unify the country: We'll change DC and make America great again.

As you can tell, most of them were non sequiturs. At one point, Mike Pence actually slipped when talking about Donald, saying:

"I'm happy to defend him, Senator, don't put words in my mouth and I'm not defending him."

Keeping score? Mike Pence deflected his own deflection on Donald.