...the reason is that the big part of what trump voters LIKE ABOUT TRUMP is that he is neither polished nor smooth nor slick. they like that he seems unhinged — it allows them to dismiss his words as mere performance. a guy like vance sort of forces you to accept that he really means it.

Not that different from previous incarnations in n the Paul Ryan mode in that you can tell they are clinging to lies for dear life because they know how toxic the truth will sound

I think it shows that he can act like he really means whatever he wants to. No idea what he actually believes.

Also,... people don't want to admit that Trump can be hilarious at times. He gave us "Meatball Ron."

Watching Vance debate Walz was like watching a greasy salesman try to sell a piece of shit used car to your dad, and I think a lot of big politics brains underestimated how much ordinary people hate that vibe

Trump really benefits from the ambiguity that comes with his raging incoherence in a way that Vance can't run from; when a guy like that isn't clear about what he means, it's very obvious that he's dodging the question.

I think this is right. Vance can't deliver the visceral aspect.

It allows it to mean he’s being sincere + telling like it is when it’s something they like, but then he’s just a blustering salesman when it’s something they don’t want to defend. Trump did a Jim T. Kirk in Kobayashi Maru and inverted the usual incentives around double talk in Republican primaries.

Absolutely correct. What pundits still don't get is that people flocked to Tr*mp because he doesn't sound like a "typical politician." He's all vibes. I think Walz is going to end up playing better with "undecided" voters in the long run specifically because of this.

Right. We already tried the polished trump this past year with DeSantis and they pretty conclusively said "no thanks".

What voters really like about Trump is the quarter century the media spent telling everybody how amazing he is.