On October 1, 2024, U.S. Democrat and Republican Vice-Presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance met for their one debate.
Some pundits are suggesting that this was the launch of JD Vance 2028.
For many years now, I have been absolutely terrified by the possibility of someone new coming onto the American political stage with the same belief system as Donald Trump, but without his baggage and with the capacity to speak coherently and smoothly.
On October 1st, my worst nightmare was realized. JD Vance demonstrated an ability to effortlessly lie in a smooth and presentable manner.
And lie he did. Fact checking by CBS News, which hosted the debate, established his many misleading and outright falsehoods, including:
- Vance claimed that Trump “peacefully gave over power on January 20th.” In fact, Trump’s long-standing, false claims that he won that election have been well documented. Trump is now facing federal charges for many of the steps he took to try to overturn the outcome that Joe Biden had won.
- Vance claimed that Trump could have destroyed Obamacare but instead he worked to ensure Americans had access to affordable health care. In fact, Trump had posted in 2017 that he wanted to let Obamacare fail, and his administration took a number of steps to sabotage the program.
- Vance misleadingly claimed that the Department of Homeland Security had “effectively lost” 32,000 children. In fact, his claim misrepresented a Department of Homeland Security report about Immigration and Customs Enforcement not properly monitoring unaccompanied minors entering the U.S. These children had simply not turned up for scheduled hearings.
- Vance also reiterated an earlier claim that Trump’s zero tolerance policies on immigration had resulted in less family separation than under Kamala Harris. In fact, family separations, which occurred as policy under Trump, did not take place under Biden/Harris. Vance is misleadingly using data on the number of unaccompanied minors who have entered the southern border.
- Vance sidestepped a question as to whether Trump, as promised, would issue mass deportations. He instead blamed Kamala Harris for what he called the ‘wide-open southern border’. Walz effectively noted that it was MAGA Republicans in Congress, at Trump’s request, who had killed a stronger border plan.
If you rewatch the Harris/Trump debate but with the volume turned off, it is still very clear who won. Harris’s facial expressions, body language, and arm/hand gestures made her appear much more likeable and convincing than Trump.
Now try this same experiment with Tim Walz/JD Vance debate. Unfortunately, Walz did not look comfortable for much of the time, while Vance mostly looked at ease. To use examples from the late-1950’s American TV series Leave it to Beaver, Walz resembled child lead Beaver Cleaver – well-intentioned but a little out of his depth at times – while Vance appeared like the character Eddie Haskell, smooth but two-faced, shallow, and sneaky. Thankfully, focus groups and after-event polling scored the debate as essentially a draw.
Unfortunately, aggregated polls, including Real Clear Politics, 538, and 338Canada indicate – inexplicably — a tightening of the presidential election campaign. While Harris still leads Trump in most of the seven key battleground states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada), her lead in each is just paper thin. — well within the margin of error. These seven states will determine the election outcome on November 5th.
It is just far too close to predict.
For world peace, democracy, and the battle against humankind’s existential threat of global warming, my fingers are crossed that the dice roll in Kamala Harris’s favour on election night.
Daily atmospheric CO2 [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]
Latest daily total (October 7, 2024): 422.00ppm
One year ago (October 8, 2023): 418.53ppm
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