Vancing the Night Away - Strassel, WSJ
Since becoming vice president, JD Vance has been starring in his own version of “The Greatest Showman.” His performance isn’t living up to the advance billing, and the reviews are growing worse. When does the overexposed veep take a cue from more successful predecessors?
Mr. Vance’s struggles were acutely on view these past weeks, and only the latest in a lather-rinse-repeat cycle. He began this round in Budapest, with a high-profile speech for the re-election of a MAGA hero, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. On to Pakistan, where he played the central role in negotiations over Iran. Back to the U.S., where in Georgia on Tuesday he spoke to the hottest grassroots group going, Turning Point USA.
To quibble with P.T. Barnum, there is definitely such a thing as bad publicity. Mr. Orbán lost in a landslide, the Iran talks collapsed, and the headline of Turning Point was that Mr. Vance had little by way of response to the antiwar heckling of President Trump.
(snip)
Mr. Vance’s approach is all show and all tell. He’s everywhere, all the time—squeezing out every opportunity to let America know how central he is to the Trump operation and the “new” Republican coalition. He’s at the March for Life, calling for a baby renaissance. He’s at the Munich Security Conference, berating European allies. He’s in the Oval Office, goading the Ukrainian president into an argument. He’s trekking Greenland, threatening to make it America’s. He’s in Rome, meeting not one but two popes. He’s all over government, rooting out fraud. Mr. Vance’s team makes certain the press is all over his schedule. None of it is subtle, or second fiddle.
Most notable is his insistent need to “translate” the president in a way that pulls the party toward Mr. Vance’s own vision—his more populist takes on deportations, millionaires, cryptocurrency, labor policy, war. The pitch is never quite Trump. It’s very Vance.
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