Reply to Walz vs. Vance: VP Debate Oct 1 2024

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This debate will be studied for years. Vance was extremely impressive. Great pick by Trump. [/quote]

Depends on what you want out of a VP. If you want a VP who is a lot like you, will pander to you shamelessly, and is skilled in the art of self abasement, then Vance was probably a great pick.  Vance is almost as big of a slimeball as Trump. They are both snake oil salesmen with outlines of ideas of plans that are a mile wide and an inch deep.  They will both say anything or do anything (legal or otherwise) to get elected. They both lie constantly (“you promised you wouldn’t fact check me!”)  and without apology. He is younger and more polished and coherent than Trump. But they both are saying the same thing. Vance is there to serve as a fluffer for Trump— nothing more.  The cross tabs of independents cited above show that Vance will not get  Trump a single electoral vote he didn’t already have. And he may be costing Trump votes among women in swing states.  If Trump had swallowed his pride and had put Haley on the ticket, Dems would really be inn trouble. She would actually get Trump new voters and would neutralize some of the problems Rs have with women voters.

But Trump has a ginormous ego and needs a lot of fluffing. So yeah, Vance’s obsequiousness probably keeps him calm and on task. And Trump likes to think he is as young, (relatively) attractive and articulate as Vance.  Having a VP candidate out of what Trump views as “central casting” also helps his ego. Because nothing is more dangerous for Trump than a wounded ego. He’s a prototypical malignant narcissist, and having a VP candidate imply in some manner, in public or in private,  that Trump is wrong (about anything) would sent him spiraling and remind America why they fired him.  Basically, Vance is Trump’s babysitter and allows him to double down on his base. But, his base was always going to be non-persuadable for Dems.

Harris went a different way, and her VP is outreach to Blue Wall voters, the Midwest and the white middle class. Walz gets her votes from these demos. But Harris is a professional, is mentally stable and doesn’t need fluffing.  So, she is fine with having a VP who is very different from herself and isn’t goose stepping to the beat of her drum.  If she were following Trump’s strategy, we would be looking at someone like AOC as the VP candidate.

So, not smart, because Vance is unlikely to get Trump a single extra electoral vote. But at the same time, smart because, after Pence, if Trump’s VP candidate wasn’t willing to do a 180 on abortion or other core principles, and wasn’t willing to say that Trump won the electoral college in 2020 and he would have not counted electoral votes from swing states, Trump would melt down. And that loses Trump votes.

In and of himself, JD is a nothing burger. A senator for two years who wrote a book (not exactly rare among Senators) and has thus far accomplished nothing beyond writing the forward to Project 2025. But p, that lets Trump project whatever he wants to onto Jaddy. 
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