How JD Vance’s 'underwhelming' Philly speech missed the mark badly: analysis

07 August 2024

Temple University's Liacouras Center, and a J.D. Vance event in South Philly.

Harris was in Pennsylvania's largest city unveiling Minnesota Gov. Walz as her running mate, while Sen. Vance (R-Ohio), the GOP vice-presidential nominee, was in town promoting Donald Trump's campaign.

Salon's Amanda Marcotte contrasts the two events, both of which she attended, in a biting article published the following day — describing the Harris/Walz rally as "rousing" and "jubilant" while layout out some reasons why Vance's speech was so "underwhelming."

"The Harris/Walz rally felt like a rousing speech by Coach Eric Taylor of 'Friday Night Lights' combined with the front row at Coachella," Marcotte observes. "The cheers were so loud that I regretted not bringing my earplugs. The mood was jubilant, even though folks had to wait hours in the heat and humidity to even get into the place. The campaign claimed over 12,000 people showed up, which is not an exaggeration…. Vance's speech, on the other hand, wasn't just underwhelming but a little uncanny."

Marcotte continues, "Despite using room dividers to shrink the space, the campaign could not hide that the crowd felt like a medium-sized wedding, albeit a pathetic one where no one cares for the couple. Vance, perhaps recognizing charisma isn't his strong suit, spoke briefly before bringing up a series of local citizens ready to blame Mexicans for their familial tragedies of drug addiction. He spoke for a couple more minutes, before taking the reporters' questions about cat ladies."

One of the reasons Vance's attacks missed the mark, according to the Philly-based Marcotte, is that he sounded like they were aimed President Joe Biden — who dropped out of the presidential race more than two weeks ago and endorsed Harris for president.

"Even in his short speech, it seemed Vance — like the Trump campaign overall — is still struggling to accept that they are running against Harris and not President Joe Biden," Marcotte explains. "It felt like the speechwriter had typed Ctrl-F 'Biden' and replaced every instance with 'Harris,' whether it made sense or not. Vance accused Harris of hiding from the press with a 'basement campaign.' Never mind that Harris is now the young and spry candidate who can keep up with an aggressive schedule, while Trump is the tired old man who can barely campaign between naps."

Marcotte adds, "One upside to the Vance event: There was no line to use the ladies' room."

Amanda Marcotte's full Salon article is available at this link.

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