The Real Reason JD Vance is Unqualified to Be Vice President
Plus: Five Questions Tim Walz Will Get When He Debates JD Vance
Recently in The Bulwark:
BILL KRISTOL & ANDREW EGGER: Our Time For Choosing
MARC CAPUTO: Trump World Wants to Start a Fight With Harris Over Trans Rights
Overtime is for everyone. If you’re a subscriber: thank you. If you’re not, there’s no better time to subscribe to Bulwark+ than today. If you like today’s issue, you can share this newsletter with someone you think would value it.
HANNAH YOEST: The Real Reason JD Vance is Unqualified to Be Vice President
IN THE WEEKS LEADING UP to his Tuesday night debate against Tim Walz, JD Vance has made headlines for a myriad of antagonistic, petty, sideshow, culture-war verbal discharges: immigrants eating pets, childless cat ladies, a “peace plan” to solve Russian military aggression, oh my!
Vance is executing the classic Trumpian playbook of “flooding the zone with shit.” And as a result, he has become remarkably disliked by the electorate. But that doesn’t mean the tactic isn’t working. Any argument against the Trump-Vance ticket based on their inflammatory rhetoric is complicit in obfuscating the core issues.For that reason, it makes sense for Walz to ignore the catnip and make a more serious case against the junior senator from Ohio. For all of Vance’s putrid ideological excretions, the most obvious and basic argument against his election to the vice presidency is that he’s 40 years old and has no substantial leadership experience. He’s wholly unqualified for the office he is running for.
ADAM KINZINGER: Does It Matter That Vance and Walz Are Veterans?
I’VE BEEN ASKED SEVERAL TIMES whether it will matter that both candidates preparing to debate tomorrow—Tim Walz and JD Vance—are veterans. As someone who served in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard for twenty years, I can tell you from personal experience that military service can shape a leader’s perspective in profound ways. But how it can prepare someone for elected office—or whether it can at all—is a more complicated question.
Military service can be a credential of patriotism and leadership. People want leaders who have been tested under pressure, who understand what it means to serve something greater than themselves.
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Bill Kristol: Prepping A Closing Message [YouTube]
The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood: Devo’s Groundbreaking Work
The Michael Steele Podcast: Mary Trump Reveals Why Her Family Turned Out the Way It Did [YouTube]
The Focus Group: Trump Is All They Know (with Peter Hamby) [YouTube]
Shield of the Republic: How WWII's Warlords Approached Strategy (w/ Phillips Payson O'Brien [YouTube]
Did you know? Bulwark+ members can listen to an ad-free version of these podcasts on the player of their choice.
Learn more at Bulwark+ Podcast FAQ.
📣Bulwark+ members can now listen to ad-free podcasts on Spotify! Learn more here.
✍️Also: Did you know that every podcast has a transcript for B+ members? Yes! If you’re more a reader than a listener/viewer, open any podcast and the transcript button is beneath the player.
Mona & Jim’s Take: These death threats are the result of mean tweets.
GABRIEL SCHOENFELD: How Did the Experts Get Ukraine So Wrong?
What accounts for the widespread misjudgment? Cohen and O’Brien identify a variety of factors, including an intense focus by analysts on the sheer numerical disparity in the size of the Russian and Ukrainian militaries. This crude approach ignored other more important qualitative indicators, like the massive corruption within the supposedly modernized Russian military and the superior morale and intense motivation of Ukrainian soldiers fighting for the survival of their homeland against unprovoked aggression.
AUSTIN SARAT AND DENNIS AFTERGUT: Five Questions Tim Walz Will Get When He Debates JD Vance
TUESDAY NIGHT’S VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE is a high-stakes standoff between two relative newcomers to the national political scene. But for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in particular, the upsides and pitfalls are numerous.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate is a character straight from Midwest central casting, folksy and down-to-earth. But on Tuesday night, he is likely to be tested like never before by Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who has twisted himself into MAGA on steroids. Trump’s uncompromising heir apparent goes into the evening with a clear purpose: tarnish Walz and make up for the ground Trump himself lost in his debate with Harris.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Monday… Like many others in the very broad path of Helene, I spent the weekend cleaning up. Compared to others, Ohio was pretty lucky. If you want to help, here are a few options:
The North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund
World Central Kitchen
Salvation Army
Western North Carolina Food Support - Mother Earth Food Hub
United Way NC
If you’re impacted, please know you’re in our prayers and help is on the way. In many cases, it’s already there.
Pete Rose, dead at 83… Of which I am sure no shortage of ink will be spilled here in Reds Country. If you haven’t read the book or watched the documentary, check out “Pete Rose and the Complicated Legacy of Cincinnati Baseball” by Brandon Harris at The New Yorker. Coincidentally, my autographed Pete Rose baseball just arrived to decorate the Cincinnati Bureau.
It all comes down to a double header… For the Mets, Braves, and D-Backs. Just as Rob Manfred1 planned it? We might resurrect the World Series prediction game. What do you think?
Jim Gaffigan in Season 50… of SNL? Sign me up. And as Gov. Walz? Perfect.
Speaking of Gov. Walz… Here he is on WeRateDogs. Perfect material for Gaffigan.
‘Just Not Right’…. Mike DeWine Confronts Trump’s Lies (Jonathan Martin, Politico)
The anti-mainstream media election… Jack Shafer writes in The Boston Globe: “Trump and Harris are stiff-arming national TV networks and newspapers. That may say more about this particular campaign than it does about the media.”
RVAT’s final push… Here’s the compilation ad voters in battleground states will see until election day. Click here to see what else RVAT is up to in the final ~month of the campaign.
“At the end of the day, do you believe Donald Trump, who always tells the truth—just kidding. Or do you believe that woman.” A devastating JD clip unearthed by George Conway’s Anti-Psycho PAC.
It Came From the '70s…. The Story of Your Grandma's Weird Couch (Collectors Weekly)
The Boar’s Head Disaster… Shows the Price of Deregulation (Bloomberg Businessweek)
Texas GOP mailer targeting Colin Allred… misrepresents a trans wrestler’s story (Houston Chronicle)
⌚️The Case of an Astronaut's Missing Omega Speedmaster… and How the FBI Got It Back (Bloomberg Businessweek)
A hidden gorge… is becoming a green oasis for Cleveland’s East Side (Ideastream)
Cincinnati mourns… the loss of Joe Tucker, a man who gave more than he had (Enquirer)
Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this message.
—30—
Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.
Who retires in 1,578 days.
