Vice presidential debates don't matter, we have been assured over and over. No one votes for vice president or a presidential nominee for her or his choice of running mate. You can go back and look at snap polls taken after past vice presidential debates and find basically zero correlation with the final election results.

All that said, the debate between Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) may turn out to matter. There's no question, certainly, about who came out ahead. As Joe Klein, a heartfelt opponent of former President Donald Trump, led off, "Well, we saw the high school studies teacher destroyed by a professional politician last night. This wasn't as bad as Biden's debilitated performance in June, but it was close."

Actually, Vance has been a professional politician for just two years, and Walz for just short of two decades. But the point stands. Vance was disciplined, returning again and again to charge that Vice President Kamala Harris, as an incumbent, is responsible for high inflation and record illegal immigration.

Interestingly, he scarcely mentioned President Joe Biden, perhaps wary of the rise in job rating accorded retiring presidents or to avoid divisiveness at a time of military action in the Middle East. And he took care to show respect to his opponent and those who disagree on issues such as abortion. So much for Democrats' charge that he is "weird."

In contrast, Walz seemed........

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