Tim Walz can reveal JD Vance’s true plan

I don’t usually pay too much attention to the vice presidential debate during a presidential campaign because it’s usually not that important. Surely everyone was excited when Alaska Governor Sarah Palin debated Delaware Senator Joe Biden in 2008 because she was such a wild card. Many people tuned in to see if she would fall on her face. (She actually held up pretty well.) There have been famous vice presidential debates in which one candidate skewered the other, such as when Democratic Sen. Lloyd Benson of Texas cleverly defeated the immature Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle: “I knew that John Kennedy was a friend of mine. And you, sir, are no John Kennedy. But most of the vice presidential debates are forgotten. Overall, vice presidential candidates, even those who are part of the winning ticket, are often forgotten parts of the campaign.

But this year I think it might be different. This is mainly because it actually appears that there will only be one debate between Harris and Trump. He is intellectually lazy and knows he is incapable of actually preparing for a debate against Harris again. He cannot risk another catastrophic failure. Unfortunately, Tuesday’s vice presidential debate could be the last major event of the campaign season before the election ends.

According to a recent Pew poll, a quarter of Americans have never heard of either vice presidential candidate — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance — so the debate will be very revealing for them. (I somehow doubt they’ll be the kind of people who tune in, but you never know.) Of those who have heard from them, 34% of Americans view Vance favorably, while 42% view the new senator unfavorably. Meanwhile, 39% of Americans view Walz positively, while 33% view him negatively. (Vance has the worst ratings of any presidential candidate in the last 20 years.) In this regard, Walz enters the CBS News debate with a pretty fair advantage.

I would guess that Vance made a very bad impression due to his evil, cold personality and very extreme ideology, but that’s just a guess. The creepy stuff about unmarried cat ladies destroying the world wasn’t a successful entry onto the national stage, and his recent crusade against immigrants from “Haitia” was, well, deplorable.

Walz, on the other hand, comes across as a very warm, normal guy. At least it’s not something that offends people.

Whether these perceptions will hold up in a debate remains to be seen. The two presidential debates in this campaign were among the most consequential we have ever seen. So who knows what could happen with this debate?

Apparently, Vance and Walz both prepared the way candidates typically do, unlike Donald Trump, who says he already knows everything he needs to know. Vance worked with several members of his team, including Trump confidant Jason Miller, and reviewed Walz’s record as a congressman and governor. Walz is played by Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, who has known Walz for years and can supposedly do a good impression of his voice and mannerisms.

Emmer appeared on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday and refused to discuss Vance. Instead, he stuck to his arguments that Walz is “Gavin Newsom in a flannel shirt” and that Trump is the guy who “fixed the country, then Biden and Harris broke it, and he’s going to fix it again.” Maybe that’s just one Big feint, but I suspect this is Vance’s real plan: attack Walz as a San Francisco hippie, attack Biden and Harris, and poke fun at Trump.

Walz has Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg play Vance in his debate preparation. His team also includes some of the veterans who worked with Harris in preparing for her debate (which is a good sign). Appearing on Tim Miller’s Bulwark podcast, Buttigieg said this – without revealing the game plan – when Miller joked that he hoped Vance’s role wouldn’t negatively impact him: “I’m going into that space, but hopefully I’ll make it.” I do it.” It’s an interesting place to come out of.

Both Vance and Walz have relatively new debating experience. The LA Times’ Paul Thornton took another look at some of them and left some interesting impressions. He believes Vance has the edge because “he knows the policy and can respond quickly to attacks.” In the 2022 Senate debates with Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, Thornton noted that Vance “is as good as any Moderators used question as an opportunity to portray Ryan as petty and hypocritical.” That sure sounds like Vance, doesn’t it?

But as Thornton points out, before Vance was well-known and wildly disliked by so many people, that was “a disadvantage that only serves to highlight Walz’s best quality: People just like the guy.”

Vance’s nasty accusations may not work so well against “the coach,” who is apparently a pretty solid debater himself. What’s notable, however, is that Walz downplayed his abilities in order to lower expectations. Thornton writes about his 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial debates:

I have a sneaking suspicion that Walz is being underestimated. He was a teacher for years but has been a politician for two decades and is in his second term as governor of Minnesota. He is a professional. His folksy demeanor might just lead the Yale-educated but still very green JD Vance to believe his rival doesn’t understand politics. I think this might be a mistake.

Will tomorrow’s debate be the deciding factor in this inexplicably close election? Perhaps. But in the end, it all boils down to the same question: Do people want to return to the negative, chaotic Trump years and spend four more years dealing with his anger, revenge and retaliation? We won’t find out until the votes are counted.