JD Vance is very intelligent, but he's unlikable.

Whereas Tim Walz is smart, he might not have as high an IQ as Vance, but he's definitely likable.

This is what the Democrats didn't understand in 2000 and 2004. And 2016, while we're at it. Their candidates were skilled, but not very likable. I'm still not exactly sure who Al Gore is. The college roommate of Tommy Lee Jones, whooping it up and testing limits, or the buttoned-up son of a career pol?

And John Kerry... Educated war hero or the husband of a very rich widow?

As for Hillary Clinton, I know exactly who she is. I don't like that she can be duplicitous, triangulating to the point where you know she doesn't believe what she is saying, but Hillary was and still is incredibly skilled, incredibly experienced, and could probably tie JD Vance in knots intellectually.

But people didn't like Hillary. People don't even like the Hillary type. The elite educated person who thinks they're better than you are.

This played in the day of JFK, when government was all about the best and the brightest, but with Reagan ushering in income inequality, with the passing of NAFTA, America got divided into winners and losers, and most of the winners were given every advantage and it's hard for the losers to still believe in the American Dream.

Politics is not business. Could JD Vance be good at business? Possibly. But in politics? He barely won his Senate seat, this guy is smarmy, I don't believe he believes half of what he said tonight. This is a guy like Don King, who starts off in one corner of the ring and ends up in the other, when his fighter is beaten by the challenger.

So what does tonight's debate have to do with next month's election?

NOTHING!

The best article you can read about the election is by Ronald Brownstein in "The Atlantic," it comes as part of your Apple News+ subscription, but if you're cheap or a Windows person you're allowed some access to "The Atlantic" before the paywall kicks in, so unless you've used up your quota, you can read this article:

"The Undecided Voters Are Not Who You Think They Are - For most, the big decision is about whether to vote at all."

t.ly/n6234

Bottom line?

There are no undecideds. It's a fiction propagated by big media and the self-styled political pundits online in order to sell advertising, make money and boost their image.

To tell you the truth, I don't know anybody who is still following the presidential race.

Oh, that's a bit dramatic. But no one e-mails, no one texts, no one calls about the election anymore. Literally, zippo. Ever since the debate.

But there are gotchas in the news on a regular basis.

You have the out of touch Bret Stephens still needing to be convinced to vote for Kamala Harris. He needs more information, more policy. The best response to Stephens was by Stephanie Ruhle on Bill Maher's show. This is what she said to Stephens:

"'For the last two weeks, I’ve been going on and on, like, I can’t figure out where ... informed undecided voters are,' Ruhle said. 'Like, who’s the person who has a list on their refrigerator of, like, "Well, she said this, and he said ..." I’m, like, who is this person? And then I open the New York Times three days ago and it’s you.'"

t.ly/H6IZC

Bingo. And the video went viral.

You've got to laugh at the opiners. They think they matter, but they've lost touch with the public.

I don't care whether Tim Walz was at the protest in Tiananmen Square and it's interesting to me that JD Vance was against Trump before he was for him, but I don't think these revelations are swaying a single voter.

Like tonight's debate. Which had an element of kumbaya. This is the debate we've been hoping for for years. Although by the end it was akin to high school.

We agree on most things. Walz acknowledged this. But some of Trump's statements are so wackadoodle...

It's about Trump.

Now in the old days, the Republican party was run by business people, fat cats. The Republican candidates were the ones you couldn't really get a bead on, who were smiling, but you knew beneath it all they were really just for themselves and their fat cat brethren. Lower taxes and little regulation! So business can prosper. Talk about a bill of goods for the middle class. None of the benefits trickled down to them, and business started to take over politics.

Donald Trump tapped into the discontent of those without a voice, who got screwed.

Oh, don't tell me about the upper middle class white nationalists. There are not enough of them to win. But the lower classes, who've suffered these past few decades, they were all in on Trump. Was there racism? Sure, but these people were sick and tired of being told what to do by the educated rich. Don't you remember Trump claiming that he loves the uneducated?

Clinton couldn't tap into this. Biden was a bit better, and was boosted by Trump hatred. But rust never sleeps and Trump is back, meanwhile, the Democratic party turned into the Republicans, everything was done behind closed doors, we were told Biden was ready to serve into his middle eighties. We don't even want many people to drive at that age, if they're even alive!

And I can't tell you who Kamala is either. But I know Tim Walz. I've had this guy as a teacher. What you see is what you get. And in a world where this has been absent so long, this is appealing.

Ever try teaching? Forget what you know, especially today it's about keeping order in the classroom, it's a skill, that most don't have. But Walz does.

As for those who said Josh Shapiro should have been the vice presidential candidate... I heard him on James Carville and Al Hunt's podcast. Shapiro is whip-smart. You believe he believes what he is saying, unlike JD Vance. But Shapiro is much closer to Vance than Walz, as in he is highly intelligent and very articulate.

Walz seemed to stumble at times. No, let me say that he FROZE at times. Threw me way off guard at the beginning. Were we in for another Biden debate? And then I was convinced it was a matter of being overprepared. He was so stuffed with facts, so concerned with getting it right, that he had a hard time being folksy, being natural.

But as the debate wore on, he continued to have those frozen moments. I guess that's just him and I hadn't seen him enough previously. But this mannerism does not mean I won't vote for him.

Tim Walz is a man of the people.

JD Vance...WENT TO YALE LAW SCHOOL!

As did Hillary Clinton. And Vance is much closer, much more similar to Hillary than Trump.

So, I could delineate the issues...

Vance started off pretty good, irrelevant of the veracity of his statements, but then it became a constant hammering of energy and immigrants, he shoehorned these issues into every answer, and everything isn't about energy and immigrants.

Walz was more straightforward and honest. And the more you watched, the more appealing he became.

As for the truth, the vaunted fact-checking CBS QR code? I guess Paramount Global's lack of cash has trickled all the way down to their news service, because CBS didn't have enough bandwidth for people to see the page! How in the hell can you be this unprepared? You're a news organization? This is laughable. I refreshed and refreshed, it never loaded. Hell, you could have contracted with AWS and been ready, but NO... And if CBS gets it so wrong on this, how trustworthy is it on the big issues?

So for a while there the debate was good entertainment. And then it slowed down and got boring and it was hard to stay off your phone, multitasking.

Donald Trump is an anomaly. His strategy is to try and win in the swing states and if not, challenge a Harris/Walz victory via the legal system. I mean JD... He lost all credibility when he wouldn't admit Trump lost the 2020 election. I mean really? You went to Yale, you worked in banking and you're buying the canard that Biden didn't win? You could see he didn't believe it just watching him, but this is a litmus test for Trumpers, and he couldn't cross the boss.

So Trump screwed up. He should have nominated someone folksy, to cut through his high strung, silver spoon ravings.

Vance adds nothing to the ticket. If anything, he convinces you that the whole Trump enterprise is a Trojan Horse affair. Everybody telling Donald what he wants to hear, but no one with any power believing it.

If you're the smartest person in the room, think twice about going into politics. Because that's not what's needed. Being warm, likable, being able to relate is a skill, one which many business titans don't have. Can you say "ELON MUSK"?

You can get away with it in business, not all the time, but if you put up the numbers and/or have voting control...

But Steve Jobs excoriated his employees on a regular basis. All in pursuit of excellence, which was often achieved, but people were not lining up to go for a drink with him, furthermore Jobs didn't want to go for a drink with THEM!

Walz's closing statement was amazing. Upbeat and optimistic about a coming together, a great antidote to the Trump train.

But, once again, stop paying attention and vote. You know who you're going to vote for. Encourage your friends to vote. The ones who never have or only sometimes do. That's what's going to make the difference.

The news for another thirty-odd days?

It's just a sideshow. A bad blockbuster being pushed by a studio that people don't want.

This debate had additional gravitas because Trump won't get in a room with Harris again. And it was not a cartoon, like most VP debates. It was more edifying than the Trump/Harris debate.

But in truth, that's who it comes down to, either Trump or Harris, the VP candidates really don't make a difference.

You know who you're going to vote for.

Do so.

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