FARMVILLE, Va. — The conventional wisdom is that Democratic Senator Tim Kaine will come out swinging, and play the traditional vice-presidential role of attack dog. Donald Trump had a rough week, and Kaine will have plenty of easy targets: the tax returns and Trump’s business record, Miss Venezuela, Trump’s allegedly-controversial-but-mostly-mundane comments to veterans, and so on.

But if the argument for electing Trump is now almost separate from his qualities as a candidate – he is the only electable option for real change, he is the only way to register disapproval with the status quo, electing him is the only way for Americans who feel forgotten by the elites to make their voices heard – then going out and whacking around Trump for another ninety minutes won’t change much. Americans have heard almost every conceivable criticism of Trump, and many of the people who are voting with him acknowledge his flaws. The Democrats’ relentless focus on Trump’s flaws seems to be an inherent acknowledgement that their own nominee just isn’t all that appealing on her own.

A new ABC News poll finds that 46 percent of Americans were unsure of the name the Democrats’ vice-presidential nominee. Tonight Kaine gets to spend ninety minutes, in front of a television audience of fifty million people, or perhaps as many as seventy million. For many Americans, this will be the first time they hear him speak. If the Clinton-Kaine ticket represents any kind of change, Kaine is the fresh face. Clinton is not likely to be a unifying figure, or a particularly liked figure. If Kaine just tried to offer a positive, optimistic vision for the country’s future, would he do himself and the ticket more good?

Or is the safest remaining strategy for Clinton to stir up fear of Trump in order to get those unmotivated Democrats to the polls?