Little Sister Resister: "A strength to harm is perilous in the hand of an ambitious head." ~ Elizabeth I

Last evening, JD Vance squared up against Tim Walz in their only debate.

The debate was cordial, civil, and friendly at times on both sides.

My main takeaway: Vance is ambitious. And not in the good way. In the Elizabeth I way.

Underneath it all, I sensed a smug, smarmy ambition within JD Vance, underpinned with the worst of the MAGAt world's stench.

It was an excellent audition tape for 2028.

He was smart to throw away that note. JD was articulate, confident, pretty, and may I daresay charismatic. Which makes him very, very scary. He also lied, mischaracterized, and justified.

Vance put forth the same ol' MAGA mucus but slickly wrapped it in pretty tissue paper. He made "alternative facts" seem reasonable.

He is dangerous.

He was smooth in his absurdities. For example, talking about medications coming from other countries, he said, "We're not going to stop it by listening to experts. We're going to stop it by listening to common sense wisdom, which is what Donald Trump governed on." WTAF.

And the lies! TRUMP "saved" Obamacare, aka the Affordable Care Act. In which plane of existence did that happen?

Climate change is "just a bunch of crazy weather patterns." As we are still collecting dead bodies from Helene's fury.

He pounded Kamala Harris for all she did or didn't do doing her four years as VP, as if she were running for reelection. She can't do – and didn't do – anything as VP except cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate.

And a weird new angle: slamming Kamala for "censorship." WTAF? Way to broadcast the MAGAt playbook! Great projection, there. This steams me.

JD pounded on the economy and the border (if he says "illegal aliens" one more time I'm gonna puke), but with more subtle and slick lies than his running mate.

Meanwhile, Tim Walz seemed under-prepared, over-prepared, or just plain nervous. You could tell he had good points to make, but used half-thoughts that if you have been paying attention you would know what he was talking about, but low-information voters wouldn't follow.

He made several good points, though. He talked about what he has done in Minnesota well. It illustrated the hope and the progress that can be achieved with the Dems.

He did land a few good punches too. He was stronger on gun issues.

JD looked the fool as he talked about needing to "make the doors lock better" at schools in order to solve the problem of school shootings. Seriously?

Walz talked about gun violence in a very reasoned yet hunter-esque way, saying, "There are reasonable things that we can do to make a difference. It's not infringing on your Second Amendment. ... No one's trying to scaremonger and say, we're taking your guns."

"Sometimes it just is the guns. It's just the guns," Coach Walz pointedly said later, directly to The People, countering the tired argument of mental health as the one-n-only cause of mass shootings.

He also hit back on the question of states determining women's rights to access healthcare. JD pushed the "leave it up to the states" argument about abortion rights, and Walz hit back, illustrating with the tragedy of the death of Amber Thurman and saying, "How can we as a nation say that your life and your rights as basic as the right to control your own body is determined on geography?"

And at the end, Walz was very strong speaking about January 6. JD tried to whitewash it (aren't they running out of whitewash yet?) and sanitize that day's events, per the MAGAt playbook. JD said that his boss "peacefully gave over power on January the 20th." Riiiiight.... just two weeks after several police officers were beaten to a pulp and the entire body of Congress ran for their very lives.

Walz directly asked JD if 45 lost the 2020 election. JD tried hard to keep fastened the curtain that shields the sham of a wizard, saying, "Tim, I'm focused on the future...."

Walz hit back: "That is damning. That is a damning non answer."

The moderators also had a clap-back, when JD tried to talk over them and mansplain their fact-check of the legal Haitian migrants in Ohio. They cut his mic and said, "Thank you for explaining the legal process." Movin' on....

All in all, I don't think that this debate swayed many undecided voters. Both candidates had their peaks and valleys, and didn't move the needle one way or the other. And probably JD doesn't care. He's looking ahead.

This poll agrees with me. No one knows.

If you want to watch it, gawd be with you, here ya go. Or for the readers out there, here is the transcript.

For my favorite analysis, see Stephen Colbert, who broadcast live after the debate last night: