By Mark Sumner
Daily Kos Staff
It’s been 10 days since Donald Trump selected Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate and America is not exactly feeling the “Vancementum.” What’s growing is an unease on the right, where even Trump’s staunchest supporters seem to realize that he did not choose wisely.
As one House Republican told Axios, Vance was “the only pick who wasn’t a safe pick.” Vance has no crossover appeal.
He doesn’t bring with him suburban voters, or moderate Republicans, or
independents looking for reassurance that Trump’s policies will be more
measured. He sure doesn’t help close Trump’s gap in support from women.
Since he has hit the road as Trump’s new junior partner, things have only gotten worse. With clumsy speeches full of weird lines that fail to get a cheer even from a hometown crowd, and old statements resurfacing that are generating an angry backlash, even Republicans are starting to realize that Vance is a loser. Kind of reminds us of another controversial VP pick.
According to Trump, his reason for selecting Vance came down to “chemistry.” Which means simply that the inexperienced senator “liked me more than anybody liked me.”
Flattery will definitely get you somewhere with Trump. Flattery is all that counts.
Vance was also the favored candidate of the tech billionaires who have been bankrolling Trump’s latest assault on democracy. They see Vance, whose big break as an investment banker came in working for billionaire tech vampire Peter Thiel, as one of their own. Thiel was Vance’s biggest source of funds for his Senate campaign.
As OpenSecrets previously reported, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and groups tied to Thiel almost entirely bankrolled the pro-Vance super PAC. The billionaire tech mogul donated $10 million to Protect Ohio Values last March. A “dark money” group tied to Thiel, Per Aspera Policy, also donated $200,000 earlier this year, and Thiel donated another $5 million after Trump endorsed Vance.
That was just two years ago. Vance has only served in the Senate for 18 months, which makes him one of the least experienced candidates to run for high office—except for Donald Trump, of course. Vance has never had to balance a state budget. He hasn’t had to negotiate with legislatures or handle an emergency. Before being selected by Trump, Vance had been in exactly one political campaign, and in that campaign, he heavily underperformed against other Republican candidates in his state, despite the big cash infusion from techbros.
Axios notes that some of the other contenders for the vice president slot on the Republican ticket came with perceived benefits. Selecting former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley might have shown voters that Trump was willing to compromise, made the slate more tenable to moderates, and done something to improve that women problem. Picking Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin might have at least given Trump someone who was good at campaigning and capable of plastering over extremist policies with a kind of faux moderation. Even North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum would at least come with a record that was largely a blank slate.
But that’s not Vance. This is a guy who wrote a whole rags-to-riches storybook whose big revelation is that people who are poor or drug-addicted are that way because they are lazy and apathetic. He’s the guy who called Trump “America’s Hitler” and whose flip-flop on Trump generated what might be the best line of the campaign to date from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
“The problem with J.D. Vance is he has no convictions,” said Beshear. “But I guess his running mate has 34.”
But Vance is not the second coming of Sarah Palin. When Sen. John McCain selected the Alaska governor capable of reading all newspapers while understanding none, he did so in an effort to expand his base in the party. Palin was viewed by the growing radical right as one of them. McCain was looked on suspiciously as a moderate in a party where the term RINO was just beginning to take off.
Palin was a bad choice, but not an altogether illogical one. It wasn’t until she was actually out on the trail—and skewered so effectively on “Saturday Night Live”—that the stars began to fade from reporters’ eyes.
But Vance’s base is just Trump’s base. Worse, it’s the meanest, weirdest, most extreme part of Trump’s base. Vance’s appeal outside of that base can be measured only with negative numbers.
Vance was a selection that Trump made when he thought he was headed for a landslide victory over a president unable to rally the Democratic Party. Vance is absolutely the last partner that Trump needs in trying to win moderate voters and independents from a younger, sharper, more hopeful candidate.
Compared to Vance, Palin was a brilliant choice.
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