Opinion: VP debate clearly went to Vance

Tim Walz did a lot better than I thought he would in his debate with J.D. Vance on Oct. 1.

Walz didn’t knock himself out of the race like Joe Biden. And he flashed some of the human skills and policy smarts that got him elected and re-elected as a congressman and governor by the good people of Minnesota.

But Vance clearly won – throwing the baseball equivalent of a one-hit shutout.

He quickly took charge of the debate and showed the 40 million Americans tuning in he was the smart guy who went to Yale, and Walz was the former high school football coach who used to be a fourth-grade teacher and can’t be trusted with dates or the First Amendment.

After these big debates, to find out who “won,” I always like to look at the initial reactions.

In the post-game analysis of the Vance-Walz encounter by the TV pundits and reporters, it was obvious to everyone except Rachel Maddow and her Trump-deranged ex-Republican panelists on MSNBC that Walz was simply not in Vance’s league.

A lot of people I talked to thought the same thing. In fact, a few said we’ve got the wrong people at the top of the tickets. It should be Vance and Walz, not Trump and Harris.

In four years, GOP presidential candidates will have to get in line behind Vance, who, in two hours of prime time, showed the country that he was not the dangerous HillBilly Hitler the Democrats have been branding him.

He answered all the policy questions well. He didn’t interrupt or insult Walz. He was careful not to be mean to the two liberal women moderators who immediately showed whose side they were not on – which was not his.

But he ably defended himself and was quick to challenge the moderators after they fact-checked him for saying the Haitian immigrants that have swamped Springfield, Ohio, were illegals.

As usual, the “Stolen Election of 2020” – the Achilles heel of Donald Trump – showed up at the debate.

When Vance was asked if he thought Trump lost the election in 2020, he made an unforced error by not saying “yes.” It was a fair question and Vance’s refusal to admit that Trump lost may come back to haunt him in a few thousand Democrat campaign ads over the next four weeks.

Vance – like Trump – should just accept what happened in 2020. They should admit Trump lost fair and square and move on – even if they don’t believe it.

They should treat the 2020 results like a bad strike call by an ump that costs your team a World Series game. Bad strike calls happen all the time.

You can complain and cry about it all night when it happens. But they’re never going to replay the game — just like they’re never going to replay the 2020 election.

Overall, Vance looked and acted presidential. What I liked best about him is that he can relate to the public.

In both the short run and the long run, Vance was the big winner. He won his reputation back from the liberal media. And no matter what happens a month from now, he might have already won the Republican Party’s presidential nomination for 2028.

Michael Reagan is the president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Contact him at:

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