Who won the VP debate? I’m going to tell you exactly what went wrong with Tim Walz and JD Vance.

I think it’s fair to say that Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate didn’t go the way most of us expected. Republican Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz criticized each other harshly in the vote, and I expected the same rancor to surface on the CBS News debate stage. Instead, the two men had a topic-centered discussion that remained surprisingly civil throughout. Unfortunately, the whole thing was very boring. It may have been a good debate, but it was terrible, terrible television.

I’m kind of sorry to say that, because in many ways Tuesday night’s debate was everything people supposedly expect from political debates. The candidates treated each other with respect: they shook hands both before and after the debate, and during their exchanges it often felt like they were trying to one-up each other with kindness. They also showed respect for presenters Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan. The moderators came prepared with serious and specific questions, treated both candidates equally and kept the debate going. The whole thing was lively, unbiased, substantial and thoroughly normal. And if you’re like me, you can barely keep your eyes open most of the time.

Why was the debate so boring? In part because it was a proxy fight over other people’s policies and records, waged by two men who, if elected in November, are likely to have minimal influence over the policies their running mates want to pursue. The office of vice president is not a particularly substantive position, and it ultimately doesn’t matter what Walz or Vance think about Finland, health care or gun control. (I mean, it’s more important than what I Think about these things, but it matters less than what, say, Mike Johnson thinks.)

That’s true of any vice presidential debate, of course — but Tuesday’s issue-centered debate felt particularly wrong because JD Vance clearly had no interest in running an issue-centered campaign in most other situations. The only reason JD Vance is a national political figure right now is because he consciously chose to embrace the ugliest and most controversial aspects of Trumpism in order to get through the Ohio Republican Senate primary in 2022 and then Trump again to gain favor, as he had sought the vice presidential post earlier this year. Let’s face it: He’s not on the list because he’s interested in repairing the damage that outsourcing and free trade may have done to the American working class. He’s on the ticket because he’s both shameless and ambitious enough to say “yes,” and carries all of Donald Trump’s worst instincts.

Everyone knows that. I know this, you know this, the CBS News anchors know this, JD Vance knows this and Tim Walz knows this. Vance is not a “talk about the issues” type of guy. Vance is a guy who “tells racist lies about Haitian immigrants.” With that in mind, I didn’t want Vance and Walz to talk about the issues. I wanted to see Walz calling Vance a “crazy” and Vance making fun of Walz for just being a “crazy.” assistant Trainer. I didn’t want to watch as Walz repeatedly evoked the similarities that he and his counterpart shared. I wanted Walz to roll his eyes and mutter, “Come on, man,” while Vance tried to act like he and Trump cared deeply about women’s reproductive health. I didn’t want to see Vance thanking Walz for mentioning Finland, I wanted to see Vance brandishing a crudely photoshopped image of Walz personally escorting several MS-13 members across the Texas border. I didn’t want fake politeness, I wanted Walz and Vance to express the rhetorical brutality that defines our current political moment.

This isn’t just because I’m a mean, bitter cynic, although of course I am. JD Vance is not a normal candidate, and by treating him like one, both Walz and CBS News have done viewers a major disservice – and not just in the sense of giving them 90 minutes of very boring television. Vance might have been advised to display empathy and civility to deter the swing voters who watched Tuesday night’s debate, but the fact remains that he won first and foremost because of his willingness to take on some of the meanest and most menial things and has risen to his current position to encourage credible attacks and opinions from his vice president. We didn’t see any of that on Tuesday night – which may be why Trump seemed bored with what he saw and decided to start posting about Pete Rose during the debate. Count on Vance to get the message and return to villainous form before the week is out high.

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