What's Tony Thinking

Tim, Where’s the Joy?

For better or worse, so much of it is affect, the telegenic, and — sorry — the vibe.

Unfortunately, Tim Walz, who is supposed to be running on “the joy ticket,” mostly looked very, very worried. Some combination of deer-in-the-headlights and terminally furrowed brow, amplified by furious note-taking. Really Tim?’

He needed some Ronald Reagan-esque wry amusement over his opponent. Some humor. And even a little confident condescension toward his much younger opponent who. after all, only has two years in the Senate under his belt.

Meanwhile, Vance was determined, after all the pet-eating and cat-lady stuff, to come across as reasonable, decent and un-weird. For the most part, he managed it. His only challenge was that he was defending his decidedly weird and recklessly impulsive running mate. Try as he might, Walz didn’t manage to remind viewers just how nutso Trump is. Trump himself did a much better job of that in the previous debate with Harris.

A big part of the affect war is who seems to be on the defensive. Vance over and over put Walz on the defensive. In fact, you would’ve thought Harris had been the President the last four years, not Joe Biden. It was “the Harris administration.” Walz did not seem to have the necessary smarts to turn the tables.

I read today that Walz, prior to Biden’s dropping out, had been positioning himself to run for President in 2028. I think he can probably kiss that goodbye. I just hope he and Harris haven’t also kissed winning in 2024 goodbye.

Vance made Trump seem reasonable, even moderate, which is a big time achievement, maybe even a magic trick. Now if they can just keep Trump under wraps until Nov. 4.

While Vance may have convinced himself and a few undecideds that Trump is sane, was effective in his first term and would be again, his problem will be that if he and Trump win, Vance will discover that isn’t the person to whom he has harnessed himself.