J D Vance is laser focussed on Kamala, not Tim Walz. Why?
The Trump campaign is suffused with nostalgia – for what might have been – and heartbreak over those they have lost the chance to fight and defeat in the election.
Donald Trump yearns for the opponent he might still have had: Joe Biden.
As for Mr Trump’s running mate, vice presidential nominee J. D. Vance, he too seems unable to move on from the opponent he thought he would be facing: Kamala Harris.
A couple weeks ago, Mr Trump claimed on his social media platform, “I HEAR THERE IS A BIG MOVEMENT TO ‘BRING BACK CROOKED JOE’.”
Meanwhile, Mr Vance’s campaign messaging remains laser focussed on the top of the opposing ticket – ie Ms Harris. Rather than staying at his own level, Democratic nominee for vice president, Tim Walz, Mr Vance continues to target Ms Harris.
Consider this:
At a campaign event in Pennsylvania on Wednesday (Aug 28), Mr Vance responded to a shouted comment from his crowd about speaking without a teleprompter: “Ma’am I don’t need a teleprompter, I’ve actually got thoughts in my head, unlike Kamala Harris”.
And in his defence of the altercation prompted by alleged politicking by the Trump campaign at Arlington National Cemetery, Mr Vance offered a crude response to Ms Harris for her criticism of the incident. “She wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up? She can go to hell”.
This is of a piece with what has gone before. After Ms Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president and chose Mr Walz as her running mate, Mr Vance seemed unable to accept that the race – and principals – had changed. On August 8, some three weeks after Joe Biden had dropped out of the race and endorsed Ms Harris, with the rest of the Democratic Party swiftly coalescing around her, Mr Vance continued to insist he wanted to debate Ms Harris. “Here’s my offer to Kamala Harris,” he said. “If she’d like to do a debate with me on Aug. 13, I’ll do it”.
Funnily, he didn’t mention debating Mr Walz.
Some say it feels like the Trump-Vance ticket is in a time warp, the golden age of before. Then, the world was gilded by possibility. Now, it’s ringed by sawtooth reality, jagged and sharp.
At one level, Mr Trump’s nostalgia for Mr Biden’s candidacy makes sense. The Republican standard-bearer is an elderly man for whom sudden change must be as unsettling as it is unwelcome.
But what of Mr Vance, a mere 39 years old, and surely able quickly to adapt to changed circumstances?
Evidently not.
But some say Mr Vance’s propensity to hammer away at Ms Harris may be nothing more than the default setting of a man who finds it easier to belittle a woman than a man. I wonder why anyone would think that!
