The one and only vice presidential debate goes forward tonight at six p.m. in the west, and nine p.m. in the east. That’s approximately four hours from now as I write. Look for the ratings to be enormous for a VP debate. The stakes “are through the roof” for J.D. Vance, as Rick Wilson reports it on his Substack page. Already the cries of “rigged” are going out in Trump world. The truth of the matter is that J.D. Vance has been in office for two years and Tim Walz has been in office for twenty. One is a statesman and the other is an opportunist turncoat. J.D. Vance used to think straight — as did Lindsey Graham, Mike Lee, Kevin McCarthy and others we could name — but the lure of profit and power caused Vance to answer the siren call of Donald Trump and MAGA. Here’s how things are shaping up.
Tonight we will see lies take on truth. We decide which way America is headed. pic.twitter.com/5vlrR9bIqf
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 1, 2024
Vice Presidential picks need three moments to go right for them.
The announcement of their selection has to roll smoothly, and the candidate has to be introduced to America. This is the mechanical part, and Vance’s was clumsy and weird.
They need to help the national ticket in some dimension: either securing an ideological faction, providing gravitas to a younger candidate (LBJ for Kennedy and Dick Cheney for George W. Bush fall into this category), or helping move a swing state. Those who fail in these roles typically find themselves in the dustbin of political history. Vance has cost Trump support in Ohio.
Finally, the VP candidate has to perform at a reasonable level in their debates. As we’re down to just one VP debate this season, it’s all on the line for J.D. Vance (R-Ashley Furniture Warehouse) as his rollout, presentation, and political impact on the Trump ticket has landed somewhere between ludicrous and disastrous.
Vance is that bad.
And of course MAGA is set up to believe that poor J.D. is being picked on.
An entire political party had adopted and embraced the personality of their leader: whiny, crybaby, excuse-making losers. pic.twitter.com/kyw9vZmdwn
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 1, 2024
Vance will need to lie over and over to protect Donald Trump; if CBS is doing its job, the hosts will ask about Trump’s most recent lies about Hurricane Helene rescue operations. They’ll ask him to defend and verify is ludicrous beyond-Trump defense of “they’re eating the cats” and to explain how he defends the threats and violence against legal immigrants stoked by his lies. They’ll ask him if he views Donald Trump as an honest and trustworthy person.
And so, Vance will lie.
He’ll lie about his plans to use the federal government to take away the rights of women well beyond just abortion. He’ll need to lie about his far-to-the-right of Trump’s positions on a national abortion band.
He’ll lie about wanting women to stay trapped in violent marriages and his weird conceit that people who can’t or don’t have children should be taxed and treated as second-class citizens.
And he’ll lie about a lot of other things besides. It’s all that he’s got. The contest in the 2024 election is not between conservative v. liberal values, it literally is beteen lies v. truth. The GOP has self immolated. The hill that they have decided to die on, literally, is Donald Trump. This is the tarnished, broken down *star* that they have hitched their wagon to. And all that Trump does is whine.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, on the other hand, present concrete policies and a vision for America going forward. Not Project 2025 which would wreck America as we know it.
The debate will be one for the ages. To quote Trump, “Be there. Will be wild.”
If you needed to know the collective I.Q. level of the fed. soc., their little zitter spew above would indicate it is very low.
As stated above “… VANCE WILL NEED TO LIE OVER AND OVER TO PROTECT DONALD TRUMP …” and then come Wed-ness-day, for Vance and his Declining D, it’ll be be: