Can the Assistant Coach Tackle the Yale-educated Hillbilly
My Dean's List editorial offering debate advice to Governor Walz
Until last week, I wasn’t sure I would watch tonight’s vice presidential debate. I already know who J.D. Vance is and don’t care to hear more about what Haitians eat. I have already accepted Tim Walz as a safe, positive running mate for Kamala Harris. I don’t need to hear him explain why he isn’t a communist or more about tampons in boy’s restrooms.
I changed my mind after watching portions of a Trump rally—I think it was Pennsylvania—and thought about the likelihood of a President Vance should Trump win. This frightening thought convinced me that anything Tim Walz can do to inform America about the Yale-educated hillbilly that Trump chose as his running back helps America. (I have nothing against Yale, but I wonder how such a great school could produce Vance and the January 6 fist-pumper, Josh Hawley, who attended Yale’s law school).
When thinking about the debate, I focused on what Walz needed to do to win. My Dean’s List editorial is about my conclusions.
My weekly column for Spy Community Media’s Eastern Shore newspapers will discuss tonight’s debate. I hope to post it here on Substack tomorrow morning.
Can Walz Tackle Vance in the VP Debate?
What Governor Walz must do to defeat the Yale-educated hillbilly.
How many of us have been counting the days to tonight’s vice-presidential debate? I suspect not many. I know Democrats who, despite J.D. Vance’s knack for getting press, pause for a second if I ask them to name Trump’s running make. And is Tim Walz from Michigan or Minnesota?
Tonight, the debate will give one candidate a chance to further introduce himself to voters and another the chance to convince the voters who already know him that he is not as weird as he seems. Both candidates will be working towards this goal, knowing that viewers don’t care what their positions are on the big issues and that whoever loses on Election Day will soon be largely forgotten in history. With access to Google, can you tell me who Barry Goldwater’s running mate was in 1964? Or who ran with Dukakis in 1984?
The vice presidency is not the greatest job in the world except for one thing — it puts you one heartbeat from the presidency. That is why John F. Kennedy conducted a short but unsuccessful bid to be Adlai Stevenson’s running mate in 1956, and Kamala Harris leaped at the invitation to run with then 77-year-old Joe Biden.
This year, like 2020, a septuagenarian heads one party’s ticket. Just like 2020, if that septuagenarian is elected president, it is not likely that he will serve as president for four years. That is why, like Harris four years ago, J.D. Vance might be thinking that if his party wins, he will soon be the Nation’s first Hillbilly President. Lincoln may have been born in a log cabin in Kentucky but never described himself as a “hillbilly.”
I will watch the debate because one of the two candidates for vice president could enjoy high odds of inheriting the presidency. Because of the stakes and because of who J.D. Vance is, I want Tim Walz to win.
To win the debate, Walz needs to achieve his mission objectives. What are they?
America already knows Tim Walz is an empathetic, energetic, articulate Governor. Walz needs to reiterate those characteristics and present himself as an experienced executive who can be more than “the spare” to President Harris.
Walz also needs to make Trump’s characterization of him as a “communist” sound ridiculous. Doing that should be easy. I can’t name any communist football coaches (even assistants), and the communists I studied in school were not big smilers.
Mr. Vance will likely borrow pages from Trump’s playbook during the debate. We will hear about “migrant crime” and the “13,000 convicted murderers” that Walz’s running mate ushered into America. Vance will also talk about inflation and remind any Pennsylvanians who are watching that despite what Harris says, she is against fracking.
Walz’s mission includes speaking calmly about the Harris agenda, especially her proposal to expand housing opportunities, protect women’s reproductive rights, and support Ukraine. Walz is up to this task. As a former high school teacher, he is a remarkably clear communicator. Unlike Vance, he is comfortable talking to people.
Finally, Walz must handle the probable insults and untruths Vance will throw at him. The Governor should reprimand Vance for the inexperienced child he is by asking him, “Where did you come up with that?” If the abuse gets too bad, he should comment, “That’s a weird thing to say. You sound like Donald Trump, the man you called “America’s Hitler” and “a total fraud” in 2017.
What would I advise Vance to do in the debate? I’m reluctant to offer any advice to a know-it-all blowhard who has already promised to help Trump steal the 2024 election if his party loses in November, but Vance’s mission objective is simple. He must introduce himself to a public that, if they know him at all, thinks he is weird. That could be tough for a candidate who has admitted to making up stories about pet-eating Haitians to get the media to pay attention to him.
I doubt Vance can make it through 90 minutes without dropping a punch line about the cat ladies working to destroy America because they are miserable. But if Vance does that, he will have a good night. For the sake of America’s future, I hope he doesn’t.
© 2024 John Dean, all rights reserved.