Walz and Vance embrace an endangered US political species: agreement

A Maga lion in sheep's clothing and a coach with debate nerves brought brief hope of civility returning to politics

There was a strange feeling as the vice-presidential debate got under way in the CBS News studios on Tuesday night that only intensified as 90 minutes of detailed policy discussion unfolded: was the United States in danger of regaining its sanity?

After weeks and months of being assailed by Donald Trump's dystopian evocation of a country on the verge of self-destruction, amplified by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's dire warnings of democracy in peril, here was something very different. The two vice-presidential nominees were embracing that most endangered of American political species: agreement.