Call it the Rorschach-test debate. Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Democratic Gov.
Tim Walz met for a vice presidential debate marked on calendars as one of the last major opportunities to influence voters' decisions before Election Day. Instead, operatives in both parties told ABC News, both sides are likely to find things they like from their candidates' remarks, and undecided voters are probably going to stay that way. That's on top of the history of vice presidential debates and nominees doing little to serve as major factors in elections -- a trend expected to be cemented even further this year with one presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, boasting universal name recognition.
"Nobody in history has voted for a presidential candidate based on a VP debate. Both of these guys are doing enough so that their side thinks they are winning," said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the center left think tank Third Way and former campaign aide in Michael Dukakis' 1988 Democratic presidential campaign. "I watched the 1988 VP debate in a Dukakis campaign office, and when [former Sen.
Lloyd] Bentsen dropped his 'you're no Jack Kennedy' line, we high-fived in glee. Then we went on to lose 40 states," he added. Each candidate followed predictable paths in Tuesday night's debate in New York -- a city whose residents widely tout it as a center of American culture but whose sway is questioned by Americans from elsewhere.
MORE: Both candidates' mics are muted during vice pr.