Photo: Matt Rourke/AP Photo

After Donald Trump’s ill-fated debate against Kamala Harris, in which he vigorously defended his viewership and lied about Haitians eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, the bar was relatively low for JD Vance during Tuesday’s debate with Tim Walz. However, not only did he outperform, but he also outperformed the Republican activists I spoke with. Someone close to Vance sent a text message with a GIF of a baseball player hitting a home run when asked for his assessment of the debate shortly after the debate ended.

Other officials from across the party commented on the Ohio senator’s performance, which they said seemed particularly outstanding when compared to the at times faltering performance of his Democratic rival, the governor of Minnesota. Some couldn’t help but spend the debate’s aftermath on their social media feeds and on CNN, reveling in what they perceived as Democrats’ bed-wetting

Another Republican in the Vance world simply said, “We killed it.” The only moment Democrats celebrated during the debate was Vance’s refusal to answer a question about whether Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. The Republicans rejected this. “They will make it around January 6th. But that doesn’t change anything.”

Walz was surprisingly disappointing in the debate – particularly his rambling response when asked about his repeated statements that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in 1989. Walz initially referred to himself as a “knucklehead” before eventually admitting that he misspoke at times.

One establishment Republican hoped Vance’s performance would give Trump a boost among wavering voters. “I believe that there are people who are not thrilled with Trump’s performance or the idea of ​​voting for him and will like what they saw tonight,” they said. Finally, Vance’s run as Trump’s vice presidential running mate was notoriously rocky, as he was forced to defend a series of inflammatory comments he had made on right-wing podcasts over the years, including one in 2021 when he railed against the influence of “childless cat ladies.” complained about “ruling the country.”

The Ohio senator’s image has not noticeably improved since then, as he has taken on the vice president’s traditional attack dog role. But on Tuesday, he was the one who came out on top — at least compared to Trump, who repeatedly mocked Walz as “Tampon Tim” on social media. Instead, he appeared, in the establishment Republican’s words, “extraordinarily competent and strikingly likeable,” especially compared to public perception before the debate, when he was viewed less favorably than any other candidate nationally.

However, there is uncertainty as to whether this mattered at all. It’s a vice presidential debate and voters aren’t voting for number two on the ticket. Traditionally, vice president debates have almost no impact on the presidential election. After all, the most memorable moment in any vice presidential debate was Lloyd Bentsen’s scathing disparagement of Dan Quayle in 1988, when he mocked Quayle’s self-comparison to John F. Kennedy. “I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. “Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy,” Bentsen said. The moment has gone down in history, but Bentsen and his vice president Michael Dukakis lost the election by a significant margin.”

As one senior Republican on Capitol Hill pointed out, “You can debate without evidence whether or not the needle moved tonight.” Clearly, this is a best-case scenario for Trump and a worst-case scenario for Harris. Scenario was.”