Tim Walz wins VP debate over unsteady JD Vance
The running mate debate was always going to be a more competitive contest than the presidential debate, simply because neither running mate is suffering from advanced dementia. Tim Walz is gregariously charismatic and JD Vance is an extremist weirdo, but the question was whether Walz was going to be able to win by an obvious enough margin for it to be seen as a win. I think the answer is yes.
If you were watching this debate through the eyes of a persuadable moderate voter, the first thirty minutes were probably a tie. Vance did a pretty steady job of passing off his absurd lies as if they were true, and pretending he’s a moderate instead of an extremist. But then just as Walz was starting to get a little bit of an upper hand, and the moderators lightly fact checked Vance on his umpteenth lie, Vance stepped in it by getting into an angry confrontation with the moderators. Vance even went so far as to specifically whine that “you guys weren’t going to fact check.” Vance lost his composure and never did get it back.
From there, Vance seemed to be on the defensive for the rest of the night. Walz didn’t have a perfect debate – no one expected him to, as he’s a natural conversationalist not a debater. But from the thirty minute mark onward, Walz started to clearly win. By the time Walz gave a compelling answer on abortion that Vance couldn’t counter, the debate was essentially over.
Of course things continued to get worse for Vance from there. The only question was whether anyone was still watching by the time Vance laughably tried to claim that Donald Trump somehow saved Obamacare. And in a question that should have been asked far earlier in the night, Vance totally flubbed his answer about whether Trump won the 2020 election, even as Walz seized the opportunity by saying “That’s a damning non-answer.”
I wrote earlier today that I didn’t think this debate would directly have much impact on the election no matter how it played out. Even though Tim Walz clearly won the debate, I still don’t think it’ll have a huge impact – at least not directly. I wrote that the biggest impact of this debate would likely come in the form of the TV ads that the Kamala Harris would create out of Vance’s words. The Harris campaign is likely already creating ads tonight that superimpose his claim during the debate that he never supported a national abortion ban with his previous statements in favor of such a ban.
In any case, we only have five weeks remaining in this election and quite possibly no more debates. It’s on us now. There has never been a better time to go to go.kamalaharris.com and get involved. You can also support the Victory Fund. Let’s go win this.
