Tomorrow night might be the last big television event of the 2024 presidential race. JD Vance and Tim Walz will debate each other, and since Donald Trump is so far resisting the idea of having a third presidential debate, this may be it for face-to-face encounters between the two campaigns. So I found myself wondering what I would ask the two candidates, if I had the chance.

Vice-presidential debates are interesting mostly because: (1) they never amount to much, in terms of having an impact on the voters, but also: (2) it is a showdown between the two "attack dogs" (the traditional role of vice-presidential candidates). So sparks do occasionally fly, even if few voters wind up changing their minds.

In an odd move, CBS has announced that they will not be fact-checking the candidates in real time, but instead merely posting a QR code on the screen that will take viewers to their website, where instant fact-checks will be available during the debate. This gives a green light to both candidates that they'll be able to say anything they feel like without the moderators jumping in to correct them. It also means that both candidates will have the choice to make of how much time to spend knocking down anything the other candidate has claimed, versus spending their time talking about their own positions on the issue at hand.

Neither JD Vance nor Tim Walz is all that well-known to the national audience. Vance enters the debate with the highest unfavorable ratings ever, but he cannot be seen as the underdog in any way. In fact, I would even consider him the favorite to "win" the debate tomorrow night. Walz is generally better-liked already, but Walz doesn't have the polished "went to Yale Law School" manner of Vance, which might put him at somewhat of a disadvantage.

In any case, let's get to each candidate and the questions I would ask them.

Senator JD Vance

Vance is a smooth talker. He debates well. And he has not shied away from giving lots of interviews to the media -- even media outlets outside the rightwing echo chamber. This has all given him plenty of practice in facing hostile questions or positions.

Vance will be playing to an audience of one, as many have pointed out. As long as Donald Trump is happy with Vance's debate performance, nothing else is going to matter much to him. So he's going to try to portray himself as: "Trump, only smarter."

Vance is a good debater, and he has experience taking on a very folksy down-home opponent (from his Senate race against Tim Ryan). He is (usually) nowhere near as offensive as Trump, and he doesn't have as thin a skin -- he's a lot harder to bait into losing his cool, to put this another way.

I'm going to forgo some obvious questions here because I fully expect the CBS moderators to bring up Vance's antipathy towards (in his own words) "childless cat ladies," and his doubling-down on the vicious "they're eating the dogs and cats" lie about Haitian immigrants in his own state. I also expect them to ask Vance about his previous comments (some reportedly as recent as the end of Trump's term as president) bashing Trump in various ways. To me, all those seem obvious questions Vance is going to have to answer.

Here are the questions I would also ask Vance:

• Vice presidents typically want to be given a few issues in what's called their own "portfolio," where the president puts you in charge of the federal government's efforts on a particular issue or policy. Please name the top two things you would want President Trump to put you in charge of leading.
• You have said that unlike former Vice President Mike Pence you would have intervened in the congressional process of tabulating the Electoral College votes on January 6th. What exactly does this mean -- what would you have done differently that Mike Pence didn't? And how do you square this with the oath you take to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution?
• [Follow-up question] Has anything changed about what you would do, now that the federal law dealing with the Electoral College vote count has been updated to make it harder to challenge each state's result?
• Donald Trump would be the oldest person ever to take office as president. Republicans have criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for not being more open to the public about the state of President Joe Biden's mental faculties. So my question to you is if you noticed Donald Trump's mental capacities deteriorate in a major way, would you risk his anger by informing the public of what you had witnessed and the concerns it would raise? What would it take for you to invoke the 25th Amendment and call the cabinet together to vote on whether to declare the president unfit for office?

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz

Tim Walz is also a fairly accomplished debater. He has the ability to both dish it out as well as take it, and can think on his feet just as fast as JD Vance. But Walz hasn't given as many national media interviews as Vance and can occasionally be rattled when directly attacked in a debate.

Walz exudes normalcy in a way not seen in a political candidate at the national level since (to be fair) either George W. Bush or Bill Clinton. Walz seems completely comfortable in his own skin and completely authentic -- not the product of some consultant telling him what to say (which a lot of politicians have problems with). He is no coastal elitist, although Vance is going to try to make him appear to be some sort of San Francisco hippie nonetheless.

The best thing Tim Walz has going for him is that the more people see of him, the more they like him. His down-home charm and authenticity resonates with voters. He is a Midwestern dad, and Midwestern dads occupy a place of honor and respect even in ultra-liberal Hollywood (I wrote, when Walz was announced as Kamala Harris's pick for vice president, that Walz was basically "Richie Cunningham's dad"). Unless Walz loses it or stumbles in some major way tomorrow night, he will likely emerge with people having an even more favorable view of him, which is definitely an advantage JD Vance does not have.

As with Vance, I am going to forgo the obvious questions for Walz. Whether the moderators ask about it or whether Vance just spontaneously brings up, the subject of the response time to the civil unrest following George Floyd's murder will likely arise (Republicans claim Walz was too slow to deploy the National Guard). Another subject likely to come up (probably from Vance) is the law Walz signed which provided free period products to Minnesota schoolchildren (which Republicans falsely accuse of mandating tampons in boys' bathrooms). And we'll probably have to revisit the not-quite-accurate ways Walz has talked about his own long service in the National Guard as well. I'm just going to assume all of those will come up.

Instead, here are the questions I would ask Walz (the first one is identical to Vance's first one, because it is a valid thing to ask that the moderators may miss):

• Vice Presidents typically want to be given a few issues in what's called their own "portfolio," where the president puts you in charge of the federal government's efforts on a particular issue or policy. Please name the top two things you would want President Harris to put you in charge of leading.
• Your own political makeup is not as well-known on the national stage as others, so I would like to ask you to name an issue or policy where your views differ from those of Kamala Harris. Obviously, you will carry out her agenda as vice president, but what would you want to do differently if eventually you became president?
• Vice presidents traditionally handle a lot of foreign policy. How do you see what seems to be a military stalemate in the war in Ukraine? What path to victory do you see for the Ukrainians? And what are your views on how Israel is prosecuting its own multifaceted war?
• Your political persona is built on Midwestern authenticity. What Midwestern values do you see yourself bringing to Washington that have been lacking in other national politicians? What would you tell Democrats who hail from coastal or deep-blue states to do differently?

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant