Why The VP Pick Is So Crucial This Time Around

While serving as our nation’s first vice president under George Washington, John Adams complained, “But my Country has in its Wisdom contrived for me, the most insignificant Office that ever the Invention of Man contrived or his Imagination conceived.” Although it would be difficult not to be eclipsed by the Father of Our Country, he was hardly the only VP to lament his apparent lack of consequence.

However, of the 49 people who have held Mr. Adams’ position, 15 have gone on to become President of the United States — as did Adams himself — including eight who ascended to the office due to the deaths of sitting Presidents. Which means that our new VP come January theoretically has a one-in-three chance of ending up in the White House. As such, what is often painted as a merely ceremonial position can be very significant indeed.

Several past vice presidents who unexpectedly moved into the Oval Office have had serious impacts on the direction of the nation. Tennessean Andrew Johnson effectively rolled back parts of Lincoln’s post-Civil War reconstruction agenda when it came to restrictions on blacks and was even impeached for a separate issue. (He was acquitted by one vote). Harry Truman took over the reins of U.S. power from the deceased FDR and made the decision to incinerate Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thereby ending the Second World War while ushering in the nuclear age. Five years later, he committed troops to save South Korea — a fortunate decision, the result of which is affirmed by the prosperous and free ally below the DMZ to this day. And, of course, upon assuming office after Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon Johnson initiated the social and fiscal disaster that was his Great Society welfare state, and then sent us headlong into the bloody quagmire of Vietnam, signing the death warrants of over 57,000 American youths in the process.

Today, we are faced with one of the starkest choices in our history as to who will head the executive branch. And, despite the admonitions of Mr. Adams, rarely have we seen each presidential candidate’s selection for V.P. as so emblematic of both how they would truly govern, as well as his/her ability to make sound decisions.

The woke, liberal, progressive Kamala Harris of deep blue California chose Tim Walz — an even more woke, more liberal, more progressive governor from cobalt-blue Minnesota. Unfortunately for Harris, Walz is proving to be as helpful to her bid for the White House as an anvil on the Titanic.

Firstly, Walz has shown himself to be a Pop Warner League politician suddenly thrust into the political NFL. As he fumbles with guns and stumbles in interviews and tries to get his lies straight, his handlers attempt to play down his uber-woke governorship. Secondly, the Minnesota governor delivers nothing in a razor-thin election wherein a handful of votes in one key swing state may deliver the Electoral College, and thus the Presidency.

As it is turning out, her decision has been, shall we say, wanting? Without getting into the already well-documented and detailed weeds of Walz’s far-Left beliefs and borderline lunatic edicts, suffice it to say that if played on a split-screen it would be difficult to discern between the self-described “knucklehead” Tim Walz and comedian Jim Gaffigan’s SNL incarnation.

MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ COMING TO DAILYWIRE+ OCT. 28

Now compare the above dumpster fire to Donald Trump’s choice for our VP. I will freely confess I initially saw in JD Vance a poor decision and, at this point, I honestly can’t even remember why. Perhaps I fell for the “cat lady” shiny object the media dangled before the public, scouring the record for anything damaging he may have said in the past decade. I don’t know. But now it is clear to me that in picking JD Vance, Trump has shown much better judgment in making the most important decision for each campaign.

JD Vance is, in fact, everything Tim Walz is not. His is a genuine biography with no contradictions when it comes to where he was during important events or his service in the Marines. His life story is, quite literally, an open book titled “Hillbilly Elegy.” Vance is a bona fide rags-to-riches US success story who is clearly bright, refreshingly articulate, and unafraid to answer tough questions while turning the tables on a media doing everything in its power to drag Harris over the finish line. The man is even married to a woman of color.

I think of LBJ on Air Force One on November 22, 1963, and ask myself if such a tragedy occurred a year from now, who would I want to see sworn in as President of the United States, Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces, keeper of the nuclear codes, and steward of one-fourth of the global economy?

I know who it would not be. It would not be a man whose wife bragged about relishing the torching of US cities, who enables and celebrates mass illegal immigration, has little interest in prosecuting crime, puts tampons in the boys’ bathrooms, believes in abortion all the way to and even beyond birth, has, like his prospective boss, never been in the private sector, and is, in his very own words, again, a “knucklehead”?

Or do I want to see the articulate and grounded Ohio Senator who clearly has the interests of the American people at heart? Who believes in the US Constitution and the rule of law? Who insists on securing our intentionally porous border? Who understands business and economics, who recognizes the struggles of a middle class forgotten by the donor elites? Who is the most articulate and clear-speaking candidate in my lifetime? And would also be respected by our military rank and file over which he would take command?

For anyone not in the throes of stage 4 Trump Derangement Syndrome the choice is obvious.

It’s often said that the vice presidential nominee doesn’t sway elections and in ordinary circumstances that may be so. But my hunch is Americans understand two things about this cycle. First, macabre as it may be, after two attempts on Donald Trump’s life, possibly three, voters have come to see that a candidate’s choice for running mate is a deadly serious matter. Thus, Vance presents to the American people something Walz does not: someone qualified to step into the Oval Office post haste if needed. Let’s be honest, it is difficult to imagine a President Walz.

That the polls began to move in Trump’s direction shortly after the vice presidential debate could be an indication of this understanding among voters. Even if, perhaps, they do not study up on the history of the office, voters intuitively understand that this time the choices Trump and Harris made as their prospective successors could have a very real and lasting impact on their lives. There’s a reason why over 43 million viewers watched the vice presidential debate.

This is the first election I can recall in which the choice of running mate was not only indicative of a candidate’s true political and social outlook, but also who was conspicuously not picked. Harris could have chosen in Walz’s stead the solid Josh Shapiro. Shapiro is the very popular governor of Pennsylvania, arguably the most vital swing state. He is bright, articulate, is viewed by his constituents as a centrist (he probably even knows which bathrooms need tampon dispensers) and could have shored up a very weak Presidential candidate in need of flying buttresses. It is, in fact, difficult to see a path to 270 electors for Harris without landing the Keystone State. A state that voted 56.5% for Shapiro in 2022. But she did not pick the Pennsylvania governor. Why not? Only the Dems know for sure, but given the anti-Semitism now slithering its way through the most progressive halls of the Democratic Party — the party of Omar, Tlaib, Sharpton, and pro-Hamas activists — it is not difficult to speculate why the Jewish Shapiro was passed over.

In the eleventh hour of the campaign, the Democrats are desperately trying to dress Kamala’s hyper-progressive, ultra-Leftist, mendacious, incompetent, soy-boy running mate — the gun-toting, wolf in the sheep’s clothing, camo-wearing, beer-swilling Joe Six-Pack — because, this is the revealing caricature of who they think the American people are. But, as with Walz’s fumbled viral attempts to load his shotgun — and not in the way the DNC would like — it appears contrived and packaged, not genuine. It is safe to say that just as Vance, due to his command of the issues, intellect and authenticity, has provided a boost to Trump, so too will Walz become ever more a liability to the Harris campaign.

In 1992, the successful Bill Clinton campaign famously adopted the mantra “It’s The Economy, Stupid!” Well, clearly the Harris team cannot run on that. But when it comes to picking someone to fill what is actually an extremely important office, (Veep’s madcap Selina Meyer aside) they might have at least tacked up on the wall at Team Harris HQ “Make Stupid Decisions, Win Stupid Prizes!”

In this sense, Tim Walz, by potentially hindering the DC Machine puppet Harris’ quest for the Oval Office, may have inadvertently done the nation the greatest service of his spotty political career. Given the vision our first vice president had for the nation he helped found, one must think that, were he alive today, Mr. Adams would be relieved.

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Brad Schaeffer is a commodities trader, author, and columnist whose writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Daily Wire, New York Post, New York Daily News, National Review, The Hill, The Federalist, Zerohedge, and other publications. His newest book, Life In The Pits: My Time As A Trader On The Rough-And-Tumble-Exchange Floors, as well as his two best-selling novels, can be found on Amazon.

The view expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.