The Issue: The vice presidential debate between Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. J.D. Vance.

Despite the cleverly rigged questions posed by the CBS moderators to drive a wedge between Sen. J.D. Vance and his running mate, former President Donald Trump, the rising GOP star mopped the floor with Gov. Tim Walz (“The Debate’s No. 1 Lesson,” Editorial, Oct. 3).

Vance was cool as a cucumber as he adroitly, and eloquently, drove home how the Biden-Harris leadership has led to domestic chaos and American decline on the world stage.

On the other hand, Walz, who wears his outdoorsman persona on his sleeve, had the look of a deer in headlights for most of the debate. Small wonder that Coach Walz’s closing play was the Harris-Walz campaign’s vacuous “politics of joy” Hail Mary pass.

James Hyland

Beechhurst

To this reader, one thing became overwhelmingly apparent throughout the entire vice presidential debate: Without question, each of the VP candidates is far superior to the top of their respective tickets.

In comportment, know­ledge of the issues and engendering trust, there is no comparison to Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Americans yearn for a return to civility in national politics — Tuesday night’s debate was the embodiment of such. Politics aside, a great job by J.D. Vance.

Anthony Parks

Garden City

As we typically see in debates, both Vance and Walz danced around the questions, often failing to provide direct answers, but the event was a surprise for a number of reasons.

The public saw a different version of Vance in the one and only debate he and his opponent will participate in prior to next month’s election. We saw a calm, reasonable and respectful man whom one could like, in contrast to his running mate.

In Tim Walz, meanwhile, we saw a man who appeared tense and edgy, rather than the folksy charmer he is known to be.

The debate format worked to the advantage of Vance. It is obviously something with which he is comfortable.

How much will this event move the needle? Probably little, if at all, yet it was an enlightening investment of 90 minutes for the electorate.

Oren Spiegler

Peters Township, Pa.

Well, vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz proved he was a “knucklehead” not only when he called himself one, but throughout the debate with Vance, as he stumbled and mumbled consistently and at times seemed incoherent

Poor Harris. This is your pick for VP? What were you thinking? Just because he is a mid-westerner doesn’t make him worthy of the office. The man is a proven liar and a knucklehead, and as governer, he let Minneapolis burn while he sat on his butt.

Vance was calm, cool and collected — and a gentleman throughout the debate. He could have attacked Walz on many occasions but chose not to. He was the winner of the debate and will hopefully win in November.

Richard A. Ketay

Newark, NJ

If Tuesday night’s debate was a football game, then Team Vance, powered by oratory skills alone, clearly was ahead at the half. Thankfully, football is a game of second halves. That’s when Team Walz, lead by a savvy coach, scored several unanswered points in a come-from-behind victory.

Switching gears, the typical mantra for a vice presidential debate is “do no harm.” Given that Vance failed to answer so many questions, my guess is Trump actually might need to debate Harris a second time. If that happens, then I’d call their next meet-up truly a Super Bowl.

Denny Freidenrich

Laguna Beach, Calif.

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