The first and only vice presidential debate made two things clear: Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz is a nice guy. But sometimes nice guys have to bring out the knives–and Walz failed to do that.

Walz’s Republican vice presidential opponent, JD Vance, is dangerous man. He lies through his teeth. In the debate, he repeatedly obfuscated, dodged, and flat-out fabricated answers, refusing to acknowledge, for example, that he said he would have refused to certify the 2020 election, that he supported a national abortion ban, and that he knowingly spread a false story about Haitian immigrants eating people’s pets in an Ohio town. He wouldn’t even admit that Trump lost in 2020.

Vance changes his stated positions with the political winds; he is a man who wants power so badly that he is willing to join the ticket of a candidate he once compared to Hitler. If Trump loses for a second time, Vance may simply refuse to admit it and may be very willing to take American democracy down with him.

He also out-performed Walz on Tuesday night.

Televised debates, for better or worse, are performances, and performances are as much about style as substance. Both Walz and Vance are men with solid policy chops who clearly do care about the minutiae of governance; a fact that set this debate apart from the one between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

But Walz and Vance are also men with two very different personalities and styles. Walz is affable; a midwestern dad who does well on campaign stops, at donut shops and........

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