Loading ...JEFF CHILDERS ON JD VANCE
French novelist Joseph Conrad once observed that a man can be judged by the quality of his enemies. In that frame, Trump’s selection of J.D. Vance as Vice-President increasingly appears politically brilliant. The Washington Post ran a delightful story yesterday headlined, “Leaked memo shows J.D. Vance’s anti-woke ideology on foreign affairs.” The article probably did more to shore up Vance’s conservative bona fides and his intelligence than anything the candidate himself could have done.
The Post meant to undermine Vance by painting him as an intolerant bigot. But right out of the gate, the article began with the unintentionally heartwarming update that Senator Vance “was known in the most powerful offices of the State Department as the single biggest obstacle to confirming career ambassadors in the Senate.”
The single biggest obstacle! Who knew the first-term Senator was hiding all these undisclosed talents under a bushel basket?
You have to read through the entire snide, incomprehensible story to figure out what actually happened. Don’t bother. The short version was that Senator Vance single-handedly held up about 30 diplomatic candidates who gave woke answers to a well-drafted questionnaire Vance designed.
For some reason, Vance seems to have suspected the State Department was proposing woke, far-left, hipster candidates to represent the United States overseas by flying rainbow flags over our embassies.
As usual, WaPo reported no “news.” Back in April, Vance and the State Department already worked things out, and the State Department satisfied Vance it would propose people based on merit instead of ideology. Vance then allowed all the candidates to move forward except for two of the worst ones. Of those two, the Senate has approved one anyway, overriding Vance’s procedural barricades through a special process.
So at the end of the day, Vance only blocked one candidate. That’s the ‘news.’ But it showed the first-term Senator managed to bring the State Department to heel. In that sense, the Washington Post’s smear confirmed J.D.’s credentials as a warrior against the deep state.
The article also gave Vance a chance to show a good sense of humor about the “leak,” tweeting that “they got me”:
https://x.com/JDVance1/status/1814696205626011918
What is emerging is what looks like a deliberate strategy by Trump to select and train his replacement, just like any good executive would do.
The slur, as they see it, is designed to affect suburban women. Many women are easy meat for such “evil white men” propaganda. Thus the highly astute decision to focus attention on JD’s love for his mom, and the mom herself, being a recovered addict. JD is a caring person, full of love and concern, in just the way suburban women think of themselves. Well played!