J. D. Vance didn’t just win the debate with Tim Walz by being polished and unflappable. He won it on substance. On issue after issue, Senator Vance (R., Ohio) had the better of the argument against Governor Walz (D., Minn.).
This was true even on issues where Democrats usually have an edge. On health care, Walz backed himself into defending the individual mandate — the least popular part of Obamacare, and one he seemed unaware had been repealed. Vance was better-informed, as well, about the abortion law that Walz signed in Minnesota. Walz kept pretending it didn’t make abortions legal throughout pregnancy, which it did. Vance faulted Kamala Harris for child-care policies that steer parents toward commercial child care instead of giving them flexibility; Walz agreed on the need for choices.
Walz did not make headway on the issues where Republicans have a lead, either. Vance effectively prosecuted the Biden-Harris administration for abandoning successful Trump policies, and Walz had no answer. Vance also pointed out that wages grew smartly during Trump’s time as president. Walz’s response to that was to attribute the economic collapse of 2020 to Trump’s mishandling of Covid: an argument voters showed no sign of finding credible back then, or since.
Neither candidate was especially compelling on housing, although each had some discrete moments of sense. Walz’s theory is that our shortage of housing is the result of treating it as a commodity. It’s much closer to the truth to say it’s the result of governments’ imposing many more restrictions than they do on the supply of most commodities.
And there was all too much comity between the candidates on trade. Raising taxes on imports was Vance’s economic strategy and his climate policy — never mind the poor results of tariffs under both Trump and Biden.
Only on the 2020 election did Walz find and exploit an opening. Trump’s lies about having won that election in a landslide are indefensible, but glossing over them is a price Vance has been willing to pay for his political career. He was reduced to arguing that Trump deserves credit for eventually leaving office in peace.
Vance made as strong a case for Trump as could be made — a better one, in fact, than Trump typically makes for himself. Now we will go back to regularly scheduled programming.