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Slugfest Without Slugging

Vance and Walz chats after the debate.
Matt Rourke/AP

Today’s notice: Vance and Walz duked it out, gently. Republicans got bullish on Israel. And Kevin McCarthy goes full “Karma.”


The De-Weirding of JD Vance

Tim Walz got his VP nom gig in part by giving Democrats one word to define the Donald Trump-JD Vance ticket: weird. On Tuesday night, he used two words that seem to fly in the face of that take: “We agree.”

Vance, whose extreme positions and rhetoric have ricocheted through the political ether since his nomination as VP — and dragged down his numbers through the cycle — started things off trying to reintroduce himself with his “Hillbilly Elegy” narrative. I’m not that guy you’ve heard about, he seemed to say. I’m normal.