Most of the D.C. political class willingly admit that Senator J.D. Vance took the ‘W’ at last night’s Vice Presidential debate on CBS. Make of that what you will. Because the same political class’ pollsters are trying to convince the world it was a draw between Vance and Governor Tim Walz and that independents especially thought Walz did well.
That last part is scarcely believable. It wasn’t even close. The gulf in confidence alone was glaring from the outset.
POLITICO had an interesting observation in its Playbook from Wednesday morning, noting: “Both men missed opportunities to go after the other’s greatest weakness; it didn’t help that the CBS moderators missed opportunities to develop what could have been sharper exchanges.”
‘FACT CHECK’ BACKFIRES.
That last part is especially true. The moderation was bumbling and once again attempted to stack the deck against the MAGA candidate.
But this ended up working to Vance’s advantage. His best moments were when he was forced to tackle an issue against three rather than one. When CBS attempted to “fact check” him over the “legal” status of Haitians in towns like Springfield, Ohio. Vance cooly explained the Biden-Harris government’s abuse of the CBP One app to grant legal status to migrants en masse.
Walz, for his part, repeatedly lied from the podium. Two major examples are his own claim about the CBP One app, which he claimed has been used “since the 90s.” The app came into use in October 2020 and was intended to keep would-be migrants in their home countries while their applications were submitted. Indeed, smartphone apps were not in common use until 2008.
WALTER MITTY WALZ.
His second big fib (we named him the ‘Walter Mitty of this Election‘ back in August) was claiming to have never scrapped Minnesota laws protecting babies live-born during attempted abortions. As Governor, he did, in fact, sign restrictionless abortion into law. He also repealed most of the 2015 Born Alive Infants Protection Act.
Pro-abortion activists claim that, in practice, this only impacts a handful of cases and basically means doctors can stop allowing parents to form attachments to babies who may have fatal defects due to the failed abortion. But these excuses fly in the face of their oft-repeated “mind your business” and “freedom for women to choose” mantras that only seem to apply when killing a baby, not when saving it.
In terms of each candidate’s worst moment, we saw a bizarre non-answer on Walz’s historic China links, dozens of junkets, and lies about when he was even there. He kept saying he “misspoke,” but it’s not really the “whether you were there in June or August” that really matters, Mr. Governor. What matters is why you were in China so much. Who did you meet with? Who did you stay in touch with? And critically, who paid for all these trips?
The good news (not for Walz) is that the House Oversight Committee is now investigating these questions. The bad news (not for Walz) is that Republicans in Congress are historically rubbish at doing anything, even when they find wrongdoing.
DEALING WITH 2020.
Vance’s weakest moment perhaps came on the subject of the 2020 election—an awkward topic, to be sure, but not one that cannot be answered without issue.
Instead of running from January 6 and the post-election carnage, I would advise running towards it–the opposite of what Trump’s campaign managers have advised. My response would have gone something like this:
“Tim, I’m happy to look you in the eye and tell you that I think the hasty and, in many cases, unconstitutional changes to our elections during the pandemic were a mistake, and many, if not most, Americans agree with me. Those changes sowed too much doubt. And too many of them are still around today. Americans expect free, fair, and secure elections, and for the life of me, I still can’t understand why that disturbs Democrats so much. That we should, as we have for the past quarter century, cast our ballots on the same day, in person, and expect those votes to be counted accurately and quickly. These are not new concepts, and you would be hard-pressed to find a majority of Americans who disagree. You guys keep saying ‘we’re not going back,’ so why won’t you let America move forward from that whole debacle that gave them Joe Biden? I mean, come on, you Democrats fudged your whole primary process to get rid of him!”
Etc, etc.
But that’s not to take anything away from Vance’s debate performance as a whole. He delivered a 9/10, A-grade performance, whereas those on Team Walz would struggle to make the case that he scored higher than a 6/10, or indeed a C+.
WHY ANY OF IT MATTERS.
Some people will try to tell you that this debate was irrelevant and that VP exchanges have always been irrelevant. This time, it is a little different.
America has now lived through a government where the President is evidently non compus mentis, and his Vice President both conspired to hide it from the public and eventually launched a coup against him. At the very same time, those people keep telling you that the current concerns of Trump’s first Vice President, Mike Pence, are somehow relevant.
Joe Biden recently revealed that he deputized Kamala Harris for virtually every major policy area, and Harris herself has claimed she was the last voice in every room. So, let’s take them at their word: the VP pick is important. And if last night was the measure of those picks, Donald Trump looks far and away the better judge of character and running mate.
What America and the world got to see last night was a glimpse into a populist future. While most of the political class and, indeed, the RINO-Republican establishment will keep kicking and thrashing about it, Senator J.D. Vance secured his place as inheritor of the Republican Party base last night.
