JD Vance’s main selling point to be president supplied by the Democrats themselves
Lost in the seemingly ceaseless discussion of President Donald J. Trump’s latest movements and statements has been the regular pundit chit-chat about the next presidential race, still over two years off.
Democrats continue going back-and-forth over their slate of pathetic wannabe presidents-in-waiting, but the Republican contest has actually featured a more interesting storyline of late. Vice President JD Vance’s unsuccessful peace negotiations missions to Pakistan recently brought a virtual storm of criticism from Democrats searching for any negative morsel that could be construed as harmful to the Republican leaders’ ongoing effort to Make America Great Again by reducing one dangerous foreign threat at a time.
As a result, fewer folks are deeming Vance a sure-thing to be Trump’s successor. If the veep must haul the sitting president’s baggage along with him, the slog will only be more arduous. Apparently.
In a thought-provoking newsletter piece titled, “JD Vance’s hard road to 2028”, Byron York wrote at the Washington Examiner this month:
“JD Vance is locked in the trunk of Donald Trump’s car. Where Trump goes, Vance will go, too. Right now, the president’s job approval rating is 41.4%, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls. Vance’s favorable rating is similar, 40.9%. Perhaps those ratings will change dramatically for the better in the coming months and years, but for Trump at least, the experience of the first Trump administration suggests they will not.
“Vance the presidential candidate also faces a tremendous burden of history. Fifteen vice presidents have become presidents. Most ascended to the job when the president died. Since the 1830s, just one — George H.W. Bush, who served under two-term President Ronald Reagan — has won the White House while serving as vice president. At the time of Bush’s victory, Reagan’s job approval was over 50%, according to the Gallup Presidential Job Approval Center…
“The bottom line is that it is incredibly hard for a vice president to follow the president they serve directly into the top job. It’s not complicated. Americans often want to make changes, and a sitting vice president running for president is asking them to keep things the same. Voters usually choose another path.”
Yes indeed, all of this is accurate. But it’s also been true, many times over, that the vice president following the outgoing president has been less proficient at politics than his or her boss in nearly every instance.
Al Gore compared to lip-biting Big Bubba Bill Clinton? There’s no comparison in political skills there.
Voters are definitely ready for a change after a president’s couple terms, and this presumably will be true even for Donald Trump. Most conservatives I talk with admire and agree with much of what Trump stands for, but the non-stop drama from the outsider president’s relentless penchant for “Breaking News” is wearing on people.
In steps JD Vance, who has been granted a fairly significant role in Donald Trump’s inner circle yet has maintained a separate identity and therefore is not assumed to be the same person as the man he serves. Nevertheless, Vance will struggle to emerge from Trump’s shadow when the time comes. As was noted before, Vance is “locked in the trunk of Trump’s car”.
York referenced the recent unsuccessful negotiations between Vance, the Israelis and the unrelenting, irrational Iranians, and suggested that Trump set the vice president up for failure by tasking the Ohioan to act as the go-between in his own Middle East excursion. This is accurate. But Vance won’t necessarily be permanently tied to the subject. His fortunes will rise and fall with Trump’s as far as 2028 is concerned, though.
But certainly, some of Vance’s future could be shaped by what the opposition does, too.
One of the biggest questions surrounding a potential JD Vance 2028 candidacy, and York even alluded to it, is whether Democrats themselves will screw things up so badly that they’ll make JD’s path that much easier by making the Republican seem like the clear choice for sane people to vote for, just as they did in 2024.
It’s hard to recall now, but looking back to the 2024 campaign – both primary and general election – Trump was not a locked-in favorite to return to the White House. It’s even harder to remember how Trump 45 left Washington in semi-disgrace, beloved by millions of MAGA fans who swore eternal loyalty to the Trump political brand, but few “fence sitters” vowed to lend their support to his comeback effort in the beginning of Trump’s period in the proverbial wilderness.
Yet Trump’s endless optimism and belief in himself and his inevitability carried him through the tough times. It wasn’t the former president’s nicknames that made the difference for him, either – you know, “De-Sanctimonious” for Ron DeSantis and “Birdbrain” for Nikki Haley – it was Trump’s ideas that ultimately prevailed.
Along with a generous (and unintentional?) assist from the Democrats themselves during the Trump era.
Seeing it objectively (or at least trying to), the Democrat party’s been engulfed in an almost decade-long slump as far as recruiting presidential candidates goes. They must’ve guessed their bench was pretty bare nearing the end of Barack Obama’s second term, and, to make matters worse, their “next in line” contender was a hard-to-love legacy woman candidate with a basket full (!) of personality issues that all-but disqualified her before she ran for the top job.
Hillary Clinton couldn’t best novice-politician Trump despite enjoying huge incumbent-like advantages.
Then, in 2020, Democrats basically lucked-into victory. The scruples-less pols used a combination of COVID fearmongering, mail-in ballot vote stealing and a few unforced errors from Trump himself to forge a way to push senile Joe Biden across the finish line at the start of the decade. And senile Joe would’ve been the guy again in 2024, too, but for Democrats finally conceding that the half-century swamp-dwelling slimeball was a broken-down old goat of a man destined to lose.
The one they anointed to replace senile Joe wasn’t an improvement, however, and might’ve been worse. The whole country understood how awful cackling Kamala was, but Democrats were beholden to their most loyal voting bloc (black women) and felt they needed to elevate the brainless but pigmented California status-climber to the nominee’s chair.
Incidentally, cackling Kamala appears primed to make another White House try, replying “I’m thinking about it” to the notion of if she’d run again in 2028. So, Democrats have that albatross around their necks going into the next cycle, too.
Beyond cackling Kamala, who is the current Democrat presidential race poll leader, the party has struggled to present a candidate who possesses the stature, resume and a combination of leftist issue positions that would allow him or her – or “it” – to compete for the 2028 Democrat presidential nod.
Democrats seem fairly united in one respect only – they want to win – but exposing the token Democrat soul who can pull the party’s disparate interests together will prove quite a chore. Adding to the challenge in today’s Democrat party is the fact large Muslim factions exist in some major blue states, and no pro-Israel candidate will compete for their favor.
Some Democrats might toe the leftist line in the primaries, but it’s by no means certain they’d be capable of presenting the right combination of positions for the general election. What appeals to Democrats in Michigan and Minnesota in early 2028 may not fly in the crucial swing states like Georgia and Arizona in November of that year.
Therefore, JD Vance likely can bank on the Democrats potentially dampening their own chances of victory – simultaneously improving JD’s betting line.
Meanwhile, scumbag California Democrat congressman Eric Swallwell’s very public sexual harassment escapades won’t dampen the party’s dread over not having credible contenders stepping forward to offer themselves as possible Trump alternatives.
Many say Democrats just don’t motivate “normal” guys to take up the mantle. The American Spectator’s Scott McKay wrote recently, “A strong, uncompromised, straight male leader within that party — especially if he’s white — would likely rein in the worst of their Hard Left political, economic, and cultural excesses, both because they’re horrific politics and because nobody can govern effectively while saddled with those. This is a party run by the Liz Warrens, Kamala Harrises, and Abigail Spanbergers of the world. They don’t take orders from alpha males.”
Cackling Kamala looks certain to be around in 2028. But what about Virginia’s new flavor-of-the-hour Abigail Spanberger? She’s surely liberal enough and hails from a commonwealth full of rubber-stamp-type Democrats rooting for her to go further.
Abigail’s “moderate” label has slipped a bit lately. Democrats won their gerrymandering referendum despite the governor’s steep decline in favorability.
Democrats have tied themselves in knots fretting over their desperate longing to hold the presidency once again. Good candidates to do so aren’t in abundance in the liberal party. JD Vance has a tough road to travel, but getting there might be made easier by the Democrats.
Jeff Rendall is editor and publisher of GolfintheUSA.com and has written about golf and politics for over a quarter of a century. A non-practicing attorney from California, he moved to the east coast three decades ago to pursue and combine his interests in all things American history and culture. Jeff has worked as an intern on Capitol Hill and in various capacities in grassroots organizing and conservative organizations and publications, including a nearly two-decade stint at ConservativeHQ.com. Column republishing or other inquiries: Rendall@msn.com .