J.D. Vance's slick, smug and dissembling performance in this week's Vice Presidential debate dazzled much of the national political media and may have had as much to do with his own 2028 presidential aspirations as Donald Trump's in 2024.
Tim Walz often looked like a guy who'd showed up to fix the furnace, but his emotionally gripping statements about abortion rights, gun violence and health care overcame his self-professed "knucklehead" elocutions, and Mr. Congeniality normalization of his rival's radical stances.
Those are some of the takeaways from the Vance-Walz affair provided by our All-Star Panel of National Political Pundits on this week's edition of Newsmakers TV.
Celebrated political writer Carla Marinucci, prominent campaign strategist Bill Carrick and veteran journalist, and Kamala Harris biographer Dan Morain rejoin the genial host for an insightful and fast-moving conversation about the debate - and the stretch run of the presidential race.
Just over four weeks before the Nov, 4 election, our experts discuss, dissect and dispute key factors of the American election with the highest stakes in at least a half-century, and perhaps since the Civil War.
Among other issues, the gang tackles:
How and where Harris is out-working Trump, as the fight for the electoral votes of seven critical states becomes more urgent.
What's behind the Harris campaign communications strategy of avoiding traditional, long-form interviews with Beltway windbags from mainstream, legacy media organizations (exception that proves the rule: her sit-down with "60 Minutes," set to air Oct. 7; Trump chickened out of his session with the highest rated news program on TV).
Why the lasting impact of the veep debate, if any, will be found on Tik Tok and other social media, especially Vance's staggering refusal to admit Trump lost the 2020 election.
To what extent Vance was positioning himself to lead an urbane, post-Trump Republican party with his very un-Trumplike civility, intelligence and respectfulness (putting aside all the gaslighting), at least until the moment he realized he better placate Dear Leader by expressing allegiance to the Big Lie.
The growing body of evidence that Trump is setting the stage for a replay of his 2020 bid to overturn the election, if he loses, this time with greater organization and intentionality.
What may be the possible effects of known unknowables, like the deadly hurricane that just ravaged North Carolina and parts of Georgia and the deadly war that keeps escalating in the Mideast -- along with other teleological questions about unknown unknowables in the form of random exogenous events that could occur before Election Day.
Or something.
All this and more, right here, right now on Newsmakers TV.
JR
Check out our conversation with Carla Marinucci. Bill Carrick and Dan Morain via YouTube below or by clicking through this link. The podcast is here. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every week night, M-F, at 8 p.m. and on weekends, S&S, at 9 a.m. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program on Monday at 5:30 p.m.
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