JD Vance

 I don't think Vance helps Trump electorally. I suppose you could argue that he helps in Appalachia, except Trump will already sweep Appalachia and Vance's book shits all over people from there. He's a hedge fund guy who has embraced Trump's culture wars. The former part isn't really popular. He is, in short, a choad.

The rumor I heard was that Trump was circling around Borgum, but his sons convinced him to go with Vance. That could be true. A lot has - and should have - been made about Vance's earlier comments about Trump. What is telling about both Vance's journey and Trump's selection of him is that it represents the craven collapse of the Republican Party into a cult of personality around a con artist and career criminal. At one point, Vance saw Trump accurately, but it became in his interest to change his position. Josh Marshall calls these figures dignity wraiths, as their dignity is slow leached from them until they become shadows of their former selves.

Vance's youth and inexperience should also weigh against him. He is, however, more intelligent than most members of the Trump family, and so he is primed to carry on this crypto-fascist political movement even if they should lose in November. Vance, though, is one of those mini-mes that spring up around Trump who know the words, but can't play the music. He's perhaps more charismatic than Ron DeSantis, but so is a fresh coil of shit.

I think Kamala Harris should make short work of him in the debate. What's more the ages of both Trump and Biden should focus more attention on the VPs, and Vance will become the poster boy for extreme MAGA positions on abortion. He's seriously in the weeds here, including calling for a national ban.

If - and this is a huge, huge if - this campaign ever pivots to the issues and not the personality of Trump and the age of Biden, Democrats should waltz to victory on the back of a strong economy, the right's embrace of Putin and the GOP's repellent position on reproductive rights. 

Anyone think we will be so lucky?