Campaign 101
The “Truth Squad” is part of any basic campaign strategy. It’s simple: have a surrogate (a prominent stand-in for the candidate) follow the opposing candidate around, and contradict what they say. So if the Blue candidate gives a speech in Pataskala on Monday morning, the Red surrogate shows up on the City Hall steps Monday afternoon to contradict it. The Truth Squader rides on the press coattails of the opposition candidate. Since generally the press wants to show both sides of the campaign, the Truth Squad presents an easy balance. Blue said this, now Red responds and gets “the last word”.
It’s basic “counter-messaging”, and in a Presidential campaign it often falls to the those who are not one of the candidates. Senior Senators, and also-ran Presidential or Vice Presidential candidates all get their name and image out around the country. They get a lot of local exposure, just countering the opponents message and doubling down on campaign themes. Don’t be surprised to see Josh Shapiro or Pete Buttigieg in the same role for the Harris campaign.
It’s the grunt work – the daily grind that good campaigns try to do.
Mud Sticks
Which leads to the question: why is Senator JD Vance, the MAGA-Republican candidate for Vice President of the United States, following Vice President Harris and Governor Walz around the country? Why do we continually see the contrast of Harris and Walz with thousands of screaming supporters, raising the roof for their candidacy; while Vance appears before a hundred people and the press corps literally down the street?
Why is Vance the “mud-slinger” of the Trump campaign? Where are the Senators beholden to Trump: Lindsey Graham or John Kennedy or Marco Rubio or Tim Scott? Trump has plenty of surrogates to take on the task of smearing the Democrats. Because when you throw mud, inevitably some sticks to you as well. And that’s why it’s the surrogates that usually do it, not the principals.
Just Weird
Vance has a compelling story. A child of Appalachia, he lived a rags-to-riches career from Middletown High School through Ohio State University and Yale Law, all paid for through the GI Bill earned in the Marines. He became a multi-millionaire who made his “bones” as a venture capitalist in San Francisco and as a bestselling author. His life story became a popular movie produced and directed by Ron Howard. He moved back to Ohio, and won a highly contested election against Congressman Tim Ryan to become Senator.
So why does the Trump campaign have one of their principals, the second man on the ticket, doing the dirty work? Vance is “truth squad-ing”, but it feels a lot like he’s stalking Harris and Walz. That got even worse when Vance “invited” himself to the Harris press corps, standing outside of Air Force Two waiting for her arrival. It seemed creepy, almost designed to fit into the Democratic designation for Trump and Vance; just plain weird.
Re-Grouping
Meanwhile Trump himself is hiding at his Palm Beach dinner club, Mara Lago. His only appearance was a Covid Era-like press briefing, where the ex-President ranted against his opponent. Other than that, the campaign visibility is all the Vance “Truth Tour”. Vance gets the limelight, but he also gets splattered with the mud he keeps slinging. (How good does it look for a former Marine to cry “stolen valor” about a career National Guard Battalion Sergeant Major?). It looks like a Trump campaign stop-gap measure, while they figure out how they can counter the new Harris-Walz ticket.
Perhaps the article written by Tim Alberta in the Atlantic is correct: the Trump campaign was completely designed against Joe Biden. With Biden gone, they are floundering, unable to come up with a clear message of their own. All they can do is lash out at the opposition, and hope that something “sticks”.
Meanwhile Vance looks small, and shallow, and, as we already said, kind of weird. His credibility as the “Hillbilly Elegy”, former Marine, up by his own bootstraps guy is tarnished. He’s even questioned if he’s “happy” or why someone should join him for a beer. His compelling life story is lost – he’s just another Trump lacky doing dirty work.
Strategy
Americans generally look at Vice Presidential candidates through a single lens: do we see him or her as President? Harris herself is quickly making that transition. Americans are growing to the idea that she could be President – the national polling shows it. But Vance doesn’t look Presidential, sneaking up on Air Force Two or denigrating Tim Walz’s twenty-four years in the National Guard with bogus claims. The Trump campaign people must know all of this.
So it’s intentional; they’re letting Vance get damaged for some unknown reason. Or they just don’t care, and Vance will have to “fill the breech” until they can figure out something better to do. Either way, it’s not good for Vance, and it’s not good campaign strategy either.
