It Was A Knockout

Start to finish.

Our politics have become tribal affairs. Very few voters remain in the elastic, persuadable column. They are sports events. Vice Presidential nominees J.D. Vance and Tim Walz squared off on the debate stage Tuesday night and to borrow a sports journalism phrase, “it was a blowout”.

The lead up to this was another example of our warped media system. J.D. Vance was weird and Tim Walz was everybody’s dad. This ran against what one could see on the ground and in live appearances. Vance has a soft-spoken, serious yet friendly demeanor. Walz has wrists made of rubber that flap as he gesticulates wildly with an oh gosh goofball attitude for a man in his sixties. Throughout the debate, Vance was a cool, calm and smooth performer while Walz looked scared, on the verge of tears and made faces small children make when caught in a crime.

Walz really looked like he was going to cry. In her debate, Kamala appeared on the verge of tears for the first fifteen minutes but settled down and got through it. Walz never did. Whatever his pre-debate coaching, no one worked with him on a serious listening face or anything resembling a poker face. Walz looked scared. The side by side contrast was so horrific for Walz that CBS stopped using the candidate split-screen.

“I’ve become friends with school shooters,” Gov. Walz.

Optics were part of it but Vance’s smooth delivery and eloquence were something we have not seen in many cycles. Vance looked like a Yale Law graduate, and one who was accepted on merit. When was the last time the GOP had a candidate like that? Vance could avoid traps and quickly pivot to the points he wanted to push. At some points, I wondered if he was too smooth and eloquent about policy, potentially pushing the normies away. This performance shows the doubters and skeptics on the right were just angry neocons upset they no longer totally control Trump’s decisions. Vance set himself up as an heir to Trumpism, which is a 180 from 2016.

“I’m a knucklehead at times,” Gov. Walz.

For all the talk of elite human capital by some Internet posters, who has it? We have four politicians that debated this cycle. Vance is by far the sharpest of the four. He is the Yalie. Does anyone really believe the left is full of elite human capital? It’s an ideologically committed vanguard, patronage networks that skew low IQ and then normies of higher income following the fashionable takes. This points to a potential future problem for the US regime. What happens in a one party state that still goes through the debate charade where the party’s picks are lowest common denominator puppets versus potential Vance like figures? At some point, the opposition will say “Why are we ruled by idiots driving us into a civilizational abyss” and flip the table.

Vance’s evisceration of Walz was complete and spin confirmed it. Focus groups all gave Vance the win, and in some instances it was 12-2 type vote totals. CNN and other media outlets pushed out polls showing squeaker wins by Vance, which in reality means he crushed Walz. CNN was gasping for straws so much that they said both men did what they set out to do and Vance was better prepared. Their tone and body language expressed enough. Vance was so thorough in his answers and so dominant that they could not even make a big fuss about Vance steamrolling the pair of female moderators.

Will this move the needle on the race? Unlikely, but this will leave an impression. Throughout the debate, social media brought up how Walz was picked over Gov. Shapiro. Even Democrats realize now they went with a buffoon over Jewish Obama. Real shame if an angry Shapiro sandbags Kamala in a month in Pennsylvania to clear a path for ‘28. A possible outcome is that Harris and Walz both do more media interviews to get more exposure. Walz was supposed to carry Harris with public and media appearances to make hiding Harris easier. Walz’s lies have been an issue, and unless in carefully orchestrated public appearances, Walz does not do well. This appearance cannot be the last big impression by Walz.

Does the Vice President matter? Of course he or she does. We have the last four years to consider. Kamala was so weak and incompetent that the Democrats could not push Biden out sooner. Biden stepping down from the campaign showed you do need a solid VP. One cannot forget that the GOP was an inch away from needing a new nominee this summer. A steady second in command matters and this debate gave Americans an unvarnished view of the men a heart beat away from the Oval Office.

Walz’s facial expressions are going to be memeable, and not in a positive way. It’s his face and his herky jerky movements, but they are good stand-ins for our federal government. How many crises are going on right now? How many do the federal agencies have a great handle on? Why are we on the precipice of a second regional proxy war? Why is the first proxy war inching towards direct confrontation with a nuclear power? Does anyone have a plan for any of this? Who is in charge? Gov. Walz is a hand picked nominee by whomever is in charge for the second seat yet switched between scared, flustered and buffoonish all debate. He is the perfect avatar for our 2020s federal government.