I Know What Walz CAN Do To Vance Tonight. The Question Is Should He?

In a few hours Vice-Presidential Candidates Tim Walz and J.D. Vance will square off on the debate stage. Conventional wisdom is that Walz will wipe the floor with Vance. I’m not so sure and I’ll get to why in a bit. One thing everyone knows is that Vance will LIE. Over and over and since CBS has no guts he won’t be fact-checked by moderators. It will be up to Walz to deal with it. Here’s the thing about Walz vs.  Vance. Walz is twenty years older, just old enough to be J.D.’s dad. And it will look that way with them standing side-by-side. But Walz has lived a very full life.  Vance, for all the challenges he had early on has not. Whether it’s a still vigorous dad, or a teacher. or a coach, or as a senior Staff NCO in the armed forces Tim Walz is not just capable of, but experienced in putting bratty, too full of themselves punks in their place. Of using a so-called teachable moment to give them a life lesson. That brings me to the question that’s been in my mind in recent days – should he?

Vance isn’t stupid. Yes, he behaves that way because he’s lost. Any grounding he might once have had is long gone, especially since he chose to become Trump’s Mini-Me. He’ll do or say whatever Trump tells him, or whatever he thinks will please Trump. That includes being like Trump and flat-out making up crazy sh*t lies. Batshit insane stuff like the immigrants in a town (Springfield) in his own state stealing and eating pets.  He literally admitted on air he’ll make up that kind of stuff and won’t apologize for doing so!  Vance has almost no political experience. Just a couple of years as a largely absent from his duties Senator.  At least Obama had years of working in state politics before HE took the leap to the federal level. However Vance has one thing going for him. He’s a graduate of Yale Law School.

We have writers and commenters on Politizoom who unlike me have actually been to law school. They can tell you no one graduates from someplace like Yale without having shown the ability (more than once) to get through being put on the spot by a professor with the entire class looking on. So, once upon a time at least Vance was in fact capable of thinking on his feet and on some pretty complex stuff.  Add to that he eked out a win in his Senate race where he had to debate and yes, we should assume he’s capable of delivering some punches.

Having said that he’s out of his league with Walz. Tim Walz served a healthy stint in Congress and then became a Governor. He knows politics, issues and legislation/policy at a level Vance simply does not. Plus there’s that life experience I spoke about. It’s varied and full but when you get down to it Walz is at heart the small-town neighbor, teacher and coach damned near everyone wishes they had. Whether it’s putting in extra time with a student that needs help with homework or a difficult home/personal situation, a coach motivating players, helping someone fix their car/truck or tractor or just getting out of bed in the middle of the night to help pull them out of a ditch Tim Walz is the guy folks have been able to count on. I recall President Obama talking about him and his “flannel shirts.” Obama noted that unlike most politicians who don a flannel shirt to be a “regular guy” you can look at Walz and see “Those shirts have been through stuff!”

In all his years as a teacher and coach, not to mention his time in the National Guard Walz has had many dozens of kids (maybe hundreds) who were budding punks, or spoiled brats etc. in his classroom or on the field.  He is widely admired as a teacher and coach. He’s one of “those” folks who look at their schools/communities each day, or later look back on as “character builders.” The kind of person who can sit with a youngster who’s lost or losing their way and take one of those teachable moments I mentioned earlier and turn it into a life lesson.

Walz COULD do that with/to J.D. Vance tonight. Of that I’m sure. What I’m not sure of is how it would play on TV to a national audience. Many of us have been on the receiving end of those teachable moments, and while we can look back and be grateful to the adult/mentor who set us straight it’s a painful thing. For both people involved. J.D. Vance has, by some accounts been somewhat lost since his days at Yale Law School. A chameleon who just wanted to be liked and get by. After law school he somehow fell into the orbit of one Peter Theil who is one narcissistic, despicable but insanely rich P.O.S. and became, like Mark Zuckerberg one of Theil’s ‘projects.’  Then Theil handed Vance off to Trump and you know what’s happened since.

I know in my heart that Gov. Tim Walz (please, let that become Vice-President Tim Walz!) looks at J.D. Vance kind of like Luke Skywalker looked at Darth Vader – knowing that somewhere there’s still some good in there that can be tapped.  Walz, who hardly grew up well off at least came from a family with love.  He’s seen many who weren’t so lucky, both in Nebraska and then in Minnesota. I’m sure being the good man Tim Walz is that he looks at Vance and thinks it’s sad that while Vance’s grandma kept him out of too much trouble, and the Marines helped him grow up (partially) when he needed a good mentor in life to help him reach his potential he struck out.  If not for the glare of this campaign, if they were just a couple of politicians thrown together to work on some joint policy task force he’d make some time, and put forth some effort to do the ‘teachable moment’ thing with Vance. Because Vance sure as hell NEEDS it.

Again however while I think Walz will have multiple chances to do it to Vance tonight it might not be the way to go.

Here’s what I WILL be watching for however. I’m sure ole Mayor Pete played the role of Vance to perfection in debate prep. If anything I’m worried about Walz having been (like happened with President Biden) over-prepared.  However as I said we know Vance will come out spewing lies. Both personal ones (at both Walz and Harris) and political ones. Also as I noted the CBS moderators will sit there like cowards (which they and their network ARE) and let Vance do so. Walz can handle it one of two ways. He can be the ‘politician’ (or ‘journalist’) and use soft language like ‘That’s not accurate’ or ‘Mr Vance is misrepresenting things’ – or go for broke.

Instead of “Governor” Walz he can, and I think should be plain old TIM Walz and use the L-word. As in LIE, or LYING. Flat out tell Vance he’s a liar. Knock him back, albeit verbally. If Walz does that and starts doing it right off the bat it should make for quite the night.  I’m sure discreet polling and focus group testing has been done on whether to “block and jab back” or stand there face-to-face and throw hard punches.  I’m just one old, broken down old fart white guy but I think the country needs to see Vance, and with him Team Trump called out.  Smarter people than me are running the Harris/Walz campaign so we’ll see if that’s what happens.

Well, in less than four hours now it will all be over and we’ll be into the post debate analysis. We’ll know then.  But still, I can’t help but think of Vance (even though he’s forty give or take) as some punk teenager that needs to be put in his  place, and Walz as exactly the wise older person who can and should do so.