Opinion by Ross Douthat on Oct. 1, 2024

The vice presidential debate has been the strongest illustration in this campaign so far of why it made sense for Donald Trump to pick JD Vance as his running mate. The Ohio senator has delivered one of the best debating performances by a Republican nominee for president or vice president in recent memory, making a case for Trump’s record far more effectively than Trump has ever been capable of doing.

Related Story: VP Debate Takeaways: Vance, Walz Target Top of the Ticket — Not Each Other

Vance’s performance included a dose of self-conscious humanization, an attempted reintroduction to his blue-collar background and striking personal biography after weeks of effective Democratic attacks on his right-wing podcast commentary. It included some careful rhetorical tap dancing and policy jujitsu on issues such as climate change and abortion. But mostly it’s an effective prosecution of the case against the Biden-Harris administration, focusing relentlessly on encouraging viewers to be nostalgic for the economy, the immigration landscape and the relative foreign-policy calm of Trump’s term.

Tim Walz, on the other hand, seemed affable, well meaning and, relative to Vance, largely out of his depth. He spent too much time partly agreeing with his rival while making a much more haphazard case against Trump than Vance was making against Kamala Harris.

Related Story: Walz and Vance Go After Each Other’s Running Mates in VP Debate

I think one question raised by this performance is why the Harris campaign has basically kept Walz away from one-on-one interviews while Vance has been out there dealing with hostile questions from Day 1 of his candidacy. It feels as if the Minnesota governor would have benefited immensely from spending some more time being grilled on the Sunday news shows before he was sent out to do battle with a Republican vice presidential nominee, who, whatever his other weaknesses, clearly knows how to debate.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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