Because I’m a masochist, I watched the entire VP debate while you hopefully spent time with your loved ones or watched a terrible Netflix movie eating Cheetos.
Since we treat our politics like a sporting event, let me cut to the chase and announce my “winner” of the debate which was Tim Walz, but it was by no means a slam dunk.
The reason why Walz gained an edge despite an otherwise lackluster performance was because he came across as nice, likeable, and gave robust answers on women’s rights, health care, Trump’s unfitness, and his coup de grace, which was forcing J.D. Vance into a corner over Trump’s incitement of the January 6th insurrection and his repeated lies about the 2020 election results.
Indeed.
I wish that Walz came to debate for the entire debate. Unfortunately, Walz seemed to have been overcooked and overcoached by establishment Democrats who told him to hold his punches to the point of sanewashing and normalizing Vance’s extremist, outlier positions. This was probably done to “win over” white voters in the Rust Belt who suffer from “economic anxiety” and not rock the boat four weeks ahead of the election. As you can tell, I am very critical of such a timid strategy. I mean Walz is the guy who was picked because he coined “weird” and was able to be passionate and compassionate during his spirited appearances on TV and rallies. Instead, Walz actually said he agreed with Vance several times. There is a difference between being cordial and being unnecessarily nice and accomodating to a man who was handpicked by white nationalist billionaire Peter Thiel and has an endless reservoir of hate towards women, especially childless cat ladies.
Also, corporate media continues to reveal its inability to meet the moment. CBS News was again worked by bad faith right wing actors and refused to fact-check the numerous lies spewed by Vance over the course of 90 minutes. The one time they did, Vance replied, “The rules were you guys weren't going to fact check.” Sit with that for a second. That’s the current state of our political media.
The moderators also led several times with GOP lies and asked Walz to answer them, such as the whopper about Democrats allegedly allowing abortions in the 9th month. Also, Palestinians and Lebanese civilians don’t exist in the CBS universe. The first question was an absurd litmust test about whether both candidates would support Israel and a potential war in Iran. One of the most important questions, the one about, you know, U.S. democracy, came in after 90 minutes.
Sigh. Corporate media will never learn, but I expected more heat and fight from Walz. He would’ve been rewarded by the majority, which are Democratic voters. He rarely used the word “lie” in reference to Trump and Vance’s incessant lies and he selectively, but seldomly, used Trump and Vance’s own quotes against them.
Thankfully, VP debates don’t move the needle. A tame and restrained Walz is still infinitely more likeable and better than a polished liar wearing mascara. The fact this election is even close is a sad reflection of a broken country radicalized in part by a broken media ecosystem. Still, let’s hope we see more of a fighting spirit in Democrats as they head towards the 2024 election.
VP Debate Analysis: Too Much Midwestern Nice, Not Enough Fight