Smooth Operator
You’ve got to give this to JD Vance. He’s smooth. Unlike Trump who lies with the grace of a slegehammer, Vance delivers his bullsh-t via a grease-lubed Slip N Slide. “I think you can make a really good argument that [Trump] salvaged Obamacare, which was doing disastrously until Donald Trump came about.” That lie was so absurd I almost needed to utilize the Affordable Care Act to stop myself from my vomiting. But it was just one of many collegially delivered absurdities ranging from where solar panels and guns come from, to the supposedly illegal immigrants in Springfield, to his own past statements on a national abortion ban, to the insane notion that Trump peacefully transferred power after losing the last election. I would have liked to see Tim Walz call out these lies as aggressively as I was calling them out in my living room (Put me in, Coach!). Most pundits seem to agree that JD Vance performed better in the debate while Tim Walz was more effective on the big issues such as abortion, health care, and the biggest issue of all, democracy. Vance refused to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election (which should be game over in any debate). In the end, the big headline from this debate may be no headline at all. Most polls called it a draw and it’s already being moved out of the top story slots by the Middle East crisis, the port strike, and the brutal aftermath of Helene.
Who do I think won? My cat. During the debate’s first commercial break, my kind neighbor called to say she was cuddling with my cat Pixel, who had wandered over to her house. She said I could come get Pixel then or after the debate. I jumped at the chance to turn off the TV, close my laptop, and get away from the oppressiveness of nonstop politics. These days, the main thing I feel while watching debates and other political coverage is that I want it to end. The show. Our obsession with the race. The social media posts. The endless texts. This era. Trumpism. The media’s poor performance. The lies. I want to go back to life before Trump. So I thank my neighbor for offering a momentary out, a chance to turn it off for a few seconds at least. When we met on the street, my neighbor mentioned how sweet my cat is. Apparently Pixel, whose beautiful coat of fur usually can’t soften the fact that she is a disingenuous authoritarian with fascist leanings, can be as smooth as JD Vance.
+ “Tim Walz started the debate a little nervous. He had some awkward moments. Most theater critics on Twitter and the political media scored the debate as a win for Vance. And if this were a high school debate competition, they would be right. Vance was poised. His answers were precise. Walz was overly elliptical at times and missed opportunities to call out Vance’s blatant lies, but political debates aren’t won by winning the approval of the pundits. They are won by making persuasive arguments to the voters tuning in … Vance impressed the pundits, but Walz scored points on the issues that matter to voters.” Dan Pfeiffer: The Pundits are Wrong: JD Vance Didn’t Win the Debate. (Dan, you had me at “the pundits are wrong.”)
+ “If you’re a Trump fan, you’re probably upset that JD Vance didn’t do enough to defend him. You’re probably also impressed by Vance’s ability to lie through his teeth so easily, freely, and repeatedly. You’re still voting for Donald Trump If you’re supporting Vice President Harris, you wish that Tim Walz was better in the debate format. You’re still voting for Kamala Harris.” Reed Galen: The VP Debate…Eh…?
+ Maybe some of JD Vance’s Yale Law classmates spent debate night the right way. By raising money for Springfield’s Haitian residents.
