In his piece today praising the GOP vice-presidential nominee’s adeptness on the campaign trail, Rich writes, “Anyone watching J. D. Vance the last several weeks can only be impressed.”
Maybe Rich is impressed, and he lists compelling reasons why in his piece. But most people watching Vance the last several weeks have not been impressed. According to FiveThirtyEight‘s polling average, since July 21, Vance’s favorable rating has increased by four percentage points, but that’s from 30 percent to 34 percent. His unfavorable rating has increased even faster, by ten points, from 34 percent to 44 percent.
Obviously, the media are biased against Vance. Much of the coverage has been wildly unfair. But the media are also biased against Trump. Despite years of saturation anti-Trump coverage, Trump’s favorable rating according to FiveThirtyEight is 43 percent, nine points higher than Vance’s.
Even setting aside his whoppers on trade policy, Vance is not winning over the American public so far. His favorability numbers have gone further underwater the more America has seen of him. If that’s adept campaigning, I’d hate to see what bad campaigning looks like.