Overall review of Vance’s speech:
On charisma, he gets very little. That’s not his thing. He’s not a showman. He’s not funny. He’s not engaging.
On disarming demeanor, he hit a home run. He had to introduce himself to America as something other than the right-wing madman of Democratic fever dreams (never mind that he’s really on the left edge of his own party). He did that very well. He came off as a Midwestern Dad, a guy who was lucky to be there, and a product of a family that was not well-off and kinda’ crazy in a way that a lot of Americans will identify with.
On being presidential, he will have to show that in the debates. Nothing in the speech came off as statesmanlike. He’s been in public office a year and a half. He’s not yet 40. He didn’t talk about having run anything or accomplished anything in public life.
On party unity, he had a real challenge: As a dissenter from most Republican voters and elected officials on a host of issues, and given the widespread reporting that Don Jr. and Eric want him in place as the hatchet man to conduct ideological purges, he had to offer an olive branch. It was offered, but not very convincingly. Vance has no experience pivoting from factional politics to coalition politics. He will need to work at showing that he grasps the difference.