So, JD Vance became likable, that whiz kid no one thought they would like, but they do, cannot help it. He is earnest, polite, just a poor kid who made good, but also gracious, smart, and just hit a walk-off grand slam, the best debate since Reagan, maybe ever. Democrats are beside themselves.
Why did the vice presidential debate last week – as we see in polls – prove to be such a barn burner, with more than 43 million watching, many Democrats who came with popcorn to see Walz clock the young JD Vance, and instead walked away musing … since JD cleaned the Walz clock.
Answer: JD Vance is the real thing, a kid who had nothing, was raised by his grandparents, and a struggling, drug-addicted mother, and had three father figures beyond his grandfather before he was a teen. What is more, he started in Appalachia, with no silver spoon, sometimes no spoon. He is real.
But that is not the thing, not really. He is different, agreeable, and principled but a good listener – a real listener – to concerns people have, awed by their trust, determined not to disappoint, someone who has consciously risen above circumstance, and done something with what God gave him.
And what has he done, at the young age of 40? He has been a US Marine, and a journalist, earned his way through college, graduated summa, Yale law school, law review, and wrote a book about life that so wowed Ron Howard, formerly of Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days, that he made it into a movie.
But that was never the point, not of JD’s life. The point was to use the gifts and give to others what God had given him, so he married, has three young children, ran for the US Senate, won, and began spreading the gospel of goodness, and even there, not just that. He is not a teller, but a doer.
His gospel includes reverence for the American Dream. And who else had that reverence? Who else rose from nothing, believed in the power of God and good to win, spoke it, but acted on it? More than a billion Americans in our storied history, from most of our Founders to Abe Lincoln, inventors like Edison, Morse, Whitney, Bell, the Wrights, Ford, and our medical magic workers, to Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, and many whose names we will never know, who made America.
This is JD’s magic, his draw, and the reason that he won the debate last week, not because he outsmarted, outwitted, out-snapped Walz, or because he out-prepared, out-thought, and out-graced Walz, although he did those last three. It is because people saw themselves, and America, in JD.
Who would you like as a vice president, or for that matter a president, someone who overstates his military service, coaching role, time in China, record as a public servant, who comes off like a sweaty, nervous funeral director, or a guy who admits to being nervous, laughs at himself, honors the efforts of his worthy opponent, feels sorry for him, seems more like a conservative young JFK.
Well, the jury is back, numbers are in, and they should give anyone who loves America, our history, traditions, exceptionalism, freedoms of speech, worship, markets, and everything else some hope.
Turns out, much as the delusional, utopian, seemingly unrepentant, and unlearning media want to get a liberation theologist, unannounced Marxist into power, they cannot staunch a basic truth: People like what JD Vance represents, where he comes from what he has done, and who he is.
As CBS, PBS, Variety, Politico, and the Washington Post strained to call the debate a “draw,” tried to shape questions to credit Walz for decency, pour value into his awkward admissions to lying about his military record, time in China, other things, calling himself a “knucklehead” – it did not work.
Truth is JD’s performance even swayed those sway-able in the media. Behind the scenes, largely unwilling to say so, the media knows JD is the real thing, and Walz a fake. Even a majority of New York Times columnists tipped their hat to Vance’s performance. The public flocked to him.
Bottom line: This debate did move the needle, and represents a big move up for Trump-Vance. Why? Vance proved likable, honest, and all the best parts of the common man, as well as a believer in the American Dream, America’s civility and goodness, and God. He has the common touch.
Moreover, Vance’s performance vindicates Trump, not in words or issues, although Vance did that too, but in basic judgment when it comes to people. Trump picked a winner. Now America needs to.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
