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2 months ago
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Minnesota nice ran headlong into Ohio smart on Tuesday night, as Governor Tim Walz faced off against Senator JD Vance in a CBS News vice presidential debate in New York City.
The best Democrats can hope for is that voters were watching 'Dancing With The Stars' instead.
Walz was exposed as a stuttering lightweight with no business being a heartbeat away from the Oval Office and Vance delivered the most persuasive case for 'America First' Trumpism yet, in what may be the last debate of the 2024 election.
Here are the key takeaways from the VP battle royale in the Big Apple.
TIANANMEN TIM
From the opening exchange, Walz looked like a deer caught in the headlights—unsure of what was going on but aware big trouble was barrelling in his direction.
He was caught red-handed in a lie about being in Beijing during the deadly Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 – when the Chinese Communist regime brutally put down student protesters.
It turns out, as even The New York Times acknowledged, that Walz was in Nebraska at the time.
From the opening exchange, Walz looked like a deer caught in the headlights—unsure of what was going on but aware big trouble was barrelling in his direction.
Walz pathetically called himself a 'knucklehead' but this isn't just a question of incompetence.
Beneath the 'folksy' act, Tiananmen Tim is a liar to his core.
Add this fib to his long list of fabrications and egregious exaggerations; he claimed that he was deployed to a warzone as a member of the National Guard (false), that he wasn't drunk during his 1996 drunk driving arrest (wrong), that his wife underwent IVF treatments (not true)… and on and on it goes.
'I will talk a lot. I will get caught up in the rhetoric,' explained Walz Tuesday night.
Right, there's a word for that: liar.
Harris should have picked Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro for her running mate.
'CHILDLESS CAT' CHARMER
Heading into Tuesday night, J.D. Vance had one goal: to prove that he is a thoughtful and composed statesman, not a 'childless cat lady'-obsessed weirdo of the mainstream media's imagination.
Success! But Vance did that and more.
The Ohio Senator delivered a Republican debate performance for the ages.
From his deftness on bread-and-butter economic questions to his handling of the opening question on war in the Middle East, Vance hit home runs.
'Governor Walz can criticize Donald Trump's tweets, but effective, smart diplomacy and peace through strength is how you bring stability back to a very broken world,' he said.
'When did Iran and Hamas and their proxies attack Israel? It was during the administration of Kamala Harris,' Vance asked and answered.
After Trump selected the 40-year-old author-turned-venture capitalist and populist politician in July, many doubted the pick.
Heading into Tuesday night, J.D. Vance had one goal: to prove that he is a thoughtful and composed statesman, not a 'childless cat lady'-obsessed weirdo.
Those days are now over.
Talk about hillbilly energy.
Vance even showed something rare seen on a debate stage: humility.
He admitted that Republicans are not persuading voters to come around to their side on the thorny topic of abortion.
'We've got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people's trust back on this issue where they frankly, just don't trust us,' he said.
Vance operates on an entirely different playing field than Walz, and it showed last night — bigly.
If only his boss could be as articulate.
MODERATORS LOSE BIGLY
Just as the Ohioan elevated Tuesday evening's affair— the CBS News moderators dragged it down, turning in a shambolic performance that doubled as a Harris-Walz in-kind contribution.
CBS News's Norah O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan were as catastrophically biased as ABC News' David Muir and Linsey Davis were during Trump's debate against Harris last month — maybe even more so.
Despite pre-debate assurances that there would be no real-time 'fact-checking,' O'Donnell and Brennan did it anyway — and only to Vance.
Walz, by contrast, was not 'fact-checked' a single time.
CBS News's Norah O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan were as catastrophically biased as ABC News' David Muir and Linsey Davis were during Trump's debate against Harris last month.
In one of the most shameful moments of the evening, Brennan attempted to sloppily undermine Vance by declaring that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Illinois entered the United States through a legal process.
What she failed to mention is that many were likely allowed in through a dubious new migration pipeline fashioned by the Biden Administration to sidestep Congress and fast-track alien admission.
When Vance tried to correct the record, they cut off his microphone – and hurriedly tried to move on to the next topic.
Walz, by contrast, never got the silent treatment – though to be fair, he was more than happy to stop talking.
Funny how that works!
O'Donnell and Brennan also studiously avoided questions on energy policy, radical progressive transgender activism and Harris's countless flip-flops — three major winning issues for Republicans.
Nor did they ask Walz how Harris could campaign as a 'outsider' despite the fact she is the sitting vice president.
By contrast, the moderators did bring up 'climate change' less than 5 minutes into the contest.
Priorities!
REFRESHING DOSE OF BORING CIVILITY
The two men's notable difference in intellectual horsepower notwithstanding, the debate maintained a quintessential Midwestern civility throughout.
How nice to watch a debate for one of the nation's highest offices minus the mudslinging!
There will be some old-school Reaganite conservative purists who are upset at how much Vance agreed with Walz—especially on issues about trade, tariffs, and a governmental role in childcare.
Such geezers need to get with the times.
There has been a populist revolution spreading throughout American politics for a decade now – and Vance's approach represents the future of the GOP.
The two men's notable difference in intellectual horsepower notwithstanding, the debate maintained a quintessential Midwestern civility throughout.
How nice to watch a debate for one of the nation's highest offices minus the mudslinging!
So, will this VP debate move the electoral needle?
History tells us no.
But this election is so incredibly tight that everything matters – even on the margins.
Walz was put on the Democrat ticket to appeal to male voters in America's Rust Belt swing voters – but I struggle to see how his embarrassing Biden-esque performance could impress anyone.
On the other hand, Vance likely won over some skeptical women, who may have bought into the caricature of Vance as a villain.
If this race comes down to tens of thousands of votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – the triumph of Ohio smart over Minnesota nice may just make the difference.
Josh Hammer is the syndicated host of 'The Josh Hammer Show' and senior editor-at-large at Newsweek.
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