Can We Please Finally Dispense with the Ruse of ‘Fact-Checking?

As you may have heard, J. D. Vance had a fine night facing off against Tim Walz, so much so that the Democratic spin on it has changed from last night’s despairing excuse-making of “well, it’s a good thing debates don’t matter” to this morning’s “but really, this poll says it was a tie!” Both remain true, pretty much: Vice-presidential debates aren’t swinging entire states into one party’s column or another, and the snap polling showed a tie (keep in mind it’s a very uncertain sample). So thus we get the “spin wars,” a political ritual that has not changed since my childhood.

I hate spin, so I will level with you: The overall polling is irrelevant, even though it is still quite good for Vance. What matters most is that he did everything strategically that he needed to last night for the campaign: He completely rewrote the media caricature of him (as reflected in the sharp change in his favorables overnight), he spoke with relentless focus about the primary issues persuadable voters — not partisan ones, meaning not you or me — care about (immigration and the economy), and by all snap measures won those conversations overwhelmingly.

As you may have heard, J. D. Vance had a fine night facing off against Tim Walz, so much so that the Democratic spin on it has changed from last night’s despairing excuse-making of “well, it’s a good thing debates don’t matter” to this morning’s “but really, this poll says it was a tie!” Both remain true, pretty much: Vice-presidential debates aren’t swinging entire states into one party’s column or another, and the snap polling showed a tie (keep in mind it’s a very uncertain sample). So thus we get the “spin wars,” a political ritual that has not changed since my childhood.

I hate spin, so I will level with you: The overall polling is irrelevant, even though it is still quite good for Vance. What matters most is that he did everything strategically that he needed to last night for the campaign: He completely rewrote the media caricature of him (as reflected in the sharp change in his favorables overnight), he spoke with relentless focus about the primary issues persuadable voters — not partisan ones, meaning not you or me — care about (immigration and the economy), and by all snap measures won those conversations overwhelmingly.

JB

About the Author

Jeffrey Blehar

Jeffrey Blehar is a National Review staff writer living in Chicago. He is also the co-host of National Review’s Political Beats podcast, which explores the great music of the modern era with guests from the political world happy to find something non-political to talk about.