JD Vance has flubbed his way into becoming regular fodder for late-night shows.
Tim Walz is a self-confessed “bad” debater, who has admitted he is nervous about tonight’s vice presidential debate.
I can’t remember a vice presidential debate where the expectations were SO low for BOTH candidates.
Which almost certainly means that both Vance and Walz will clear that low expectations hurdle — and do just fine.
To my mind Vance is the surer bet on that front. Yes, many of his past statements, tweets and other ephemera have made him look, at turns, intolerant and buffoonish (and sometimes both!).
But Vance is someone who has been a national figure — dating all the way back to the success of his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.” He’s been in the spotlight. And just since being picked as VP, he’s given dozens of interviews to all sorts of media outlets — good training for the questioning he will come under tonight.
Walz, on the other hand, is less tested. He has studiously avoided the media in this campaign — a stark contrast to Vance.
But, Walz is far from a debate newbie. The New York Times watched all of Walz’s past debates — as a candidate for Congress and governor — and concluded:
A review of a half-dozen recorded debates over Mr. Walz’s career makes clear that while the camo-wearing, car-tinkering man from Mankato may not be his party’s most stirring speaker, he is in fact a seasoned debater himself.
He is capable of both delivering punchy criticisms and exuding the Everyman appeal that helped propel him to the Democratic ticket — it was Mr. Walz, after all, who memorably branded the Trump-Vance ticket as “weird.” At times, though, Mr. Walz has been knocked off-kilter, too.
“He can get a bit wordy,” said former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, a Republican. “But he’s an energetic and assertive speaker.”
My guess? Both men exceed the extremely low expectations for them. Which is, of course, how they want it! It’s why both sides work to lower expectations in the first place! Clearing a low bar is still clearing a bar!
One final thought: Do NOT assume that tonight’s debate has any significant bearing on the race at the top of the ticket. VP debates, historically, are not the sort of thing that move the needle in the presidential contest.
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