Americans hate Sen. J.D. Vance. All sorts of polling shows it in all sorts of ways. Vance sports a favorability rating of negative 11 points, according to recent polling from CNN, a historically terrible figure. (The lowest vice presidential candidate favorability in the modern era prior to Vance went to Dan Quayle, who in 1988 notched a minus three). According to a different, recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, half of registered voters have a somewhat or very unfavorable view of Vance, a number that has tracked steadily up the more voters have heard from him.

Those very same polls show the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, on the opposite end of the spectrum. Between Vance, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former President Donald Trump, Walz is routinely the most liked of the four. The aforementioned CNN polling has his favorability at plus four points.

This would seemingly make for a very obvious debate strategy: point out all the things that make Vance so reviled at every possible opportunity, hammer Vance for his unpopular policies, and be merciless with his less-than-winning personality.

Instead, Walz did the opposite. In 90 minutes debating Vance, the phrase that Walz uttered seemingly more than any other was some version of agreement with Vance’s perspective and policy: “I agree with a lot of what Sen. Vance said”; “I’m in agreement with him on this”; “I don’t think Sen. Vance and I are that far........

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