Dem
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GOP
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We think that a presidential candidate's running mate matters, at least a little (see above). But if you ask the two guys on the current Republican ticket, they don't agree. Not since Sarah Palin ran for vice president has any candidate for that office taken as much flak as J.D. Vance has. It's probably because Vance wasn't vetted thoroughly. Donald Trump just liked the way he was the ultimate toady, and went with him. Trump is trying to defend himself by saying, in so many words, "Veep, schmeep. Who cares?"
Vance, for his part, said: "My attitude is, it doesn't really matter, as much as this hits my ego. People are going to vote primarily for Donald Trump or for Kamala Harris. That's the way these things go." Denigrating the office you are running for is, well, weird. Normally, VPs don't pi** on the bucket of warm pi** until they've been sworn in and have experienced how little power they really have (in most administrations).
Vice presidential candidates are like doctors. Their first rule is: Do no harm. Vance has done quite a bit of harm already. Somebody should have told him that childless cat ladies are allowed to vote and kids have no vote. Maybe that will be different after a second Trump administration, but in November the cat ladies can vote, so insulting them probably doesn't fall in the category of "do no harm." His characterization of pregnancies resulting from rape as "inconvenient" is probably not going to win a lot of votes from women who have been raped, or from their family members.
At the NABJ conference last week, Trump was asked whether Vance was ready to be president on Day 1. Trump refused to answer. Ooops. When Vance was asked about potential Democratic veep nominee Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), Vance said: "I've seen a lot of clips of him talk, and he talks like Barack Obama." Whoa. Is that a put-down or a compliment? Obama is widely seen as one of the best orators since William Jennings Bryan or Abraham Lincoln. Shapiro didn't respond to Vance with a brilliant speech. Instead, he just called Vance's remark weird. If Kamala Harris wins in November, the Merriam-Webster's word of the year is going to be "weird," taking over from 2023 word of the year, "authentic."
Vance is trying to fight back against the Democrats' use of "weird" to describe him and his running mate. At a rally over the weekend, the Ohioan went on a Trump-style rant:
Kamala Harris says we're weird. Well, Kamala. I'm glad you brought that up. Let's talk about some things that are weird.
We think it's weird that Democrats want to put sexually explicit books in toddlers libraries. We think it's weird that the far left wants to allow biological males to beat the living crap out of women in boxing. We think it's weird for a presidential candidate to bail convicted rapists and murderers out of prison, and that's what Kamala Harris did.
And I think it's especially weird when Kamala Harris comes to Atlanta, I believe came here to this arena. Kamala Harris comes to Atlanta and talks with a fake southern accent. Even though she grew up in Canada. You can't make it up. That's pretty weird. Go watch the clip.
She sounded like a southern belle. Even though she grew up in Vancouver. It doesn't make any sense. But on November 5th, she can go back to using her San Francisco accent. Because we're going to send her packing and we're going to reelect Donald J. Trump.
In our view, this is a terribly ineffective response. First of all, as noted, it is a rant. It comes off as the result of a recipe that calls for a lengthy listing of right-wing red-meat grievances, topped with a light dusting of weirds. That gives the impression of a man whose fee-fees are hurt, and who is saying, in so many words, "Nuh, uh. I'm rubber and you're glue; whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you."
Consistent with that, Vance is also trying WAY too hard to come up with new and fresh grievances to carp about. For those who have not followed the story, the bit about boxing is a reference to Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer who will win at least a bronze medal in this year's women's 66 kg division. To make a long story short, Khelif has had a lengthy career as a boxer, and never had any questions in terms of eligibility until she beat a previously undefeated Russian boxer in 2023. Just days later, the International Boxing Association (IBA), which sanctioned the bout, declared that Khelif had failed a testosterone test, that she was biologically male, and that her victory was therefore null and void. That sounds pretty bad, until you learn three additional facts: (1) the IBA is based in Russia and is led by an ally of Vladimir Putin, (2) the IBA is so corrupt it was stripped of its official status and is no longer recognized as a legitimate sanctioning body by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and (3) the IBA has never provided any proof of its claims.
The upshot here is that it's within the realm of possibility that Khelif is not eligible to compete, but Occam's Razor says otherwise, especially since she's passed every other test, including the ones administered by the IOC this Olympic cycle. So, Vance's claim about allowing "biological males to beat the living crap out of women in boxing" is dubious, at best. Further, despite Vance's allegations to the contrary, we have not heard of any Democrat weighing in on the question, since the U.S. government has no role to play in a pseudo-dispute over a non-American competition involving a non-American boxer. On the other hand, if you want to argue that Vance's acceptance of the IBA's version of events is a reminder that he, his running mate, and their party tend to be useful idiots willing to uncritically accept Russian propaganda as truth? That we'll allow.
In addition to his struggles with "weird," Vance continues to dig new holes for himself. On Friday, he did a podcast interview as part of his ongoing media blitz, and he told a "fun" story:
My son, who is seven, is in the hotel room with me. And he is really into Pokemon cards right now, he's going through a Pokemon phase... I mean he's really into it, so he is trying to talk to me about Pikachu and I am on the phone with Donald Trump, I'm like "son, shut the hell up for 30 seconds about Pikachu. This is the most important phone call of my life, please just let me take this phone call."
We've read it over numerous times, and we're not sure what about this was meant to be heartwarming or funny or... whatever. And we're not surprised, meanwhile, that the lesson that many people took from the story is "Vance is a jerk and a bad father."
Now, maybe it is not fair that Vance's every utterance is being put under a microscope like this. But that's life when you accept a spot on a major-party presidential ticket. In fact, the treatment that Vance is getting right now pretty closely parallels the treatment that Joe Biden got in the weeks after the debate. Once the narrative became "the President is losing his marbles," then every utterance was scrutinized for additional evidence. The narrative has now taken hold that Vance is weird and, well, an a**hole who looks down upon people who are not parents. So now he gets to be scrutinized, particularly when he talks about his own parenting. Time will tell if Vance can survive this phase of his political career; we all know what happened with Biden. (V & Z)