This was weird:
JD Vance briskly marched up to Air Force 2, Kamala Harris’ plane, planning to give political reporters a show as he confronted the vice president uninvited on Wednesday. His power-play dreams, like most of his chaotic veep run, were immediately thwarted once he realized Harris was not present.Vance thought this moment was bro-riffic:
“I just wanted to check out my future plane,” Vance told campaign reporters gathered on the tarmac in Wisconsin.
This Entourage reboot is going to be awesome pic.twitter.com/cHbU6Z1H3u
— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 7, 2024
Others had different responses:
I didn’t think there was a way for JD Vance to lose even more women voters, but seeing him trying to stalk Kamala Harris on a tarmac is the way to do it.
— Jess Piper (@piper4missouri) August 8, 2024
Every woman has a story of a creepy man doing creepy shit. JD fits the bill.
Why won’t she talk to me? Or call? Or return my texts? pic.twitter.com/6MWGnvjvwo
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 8, 2024
On their way to a 15 year old’s OBGYN appt pic.twitter.com/63TTCQXXsX
— Christine Nangle (@nanglish) August 7, 2024
But the Trump campaign clearly likes it when J.D. Vance acts like a stalker. It's clearly of a piece with the He-Man Woman Haters' Club vibe of the Republican convention, particularly its last night, which deeply impressed at least one nepo-baby reporter, despite the interminable length and weirdness of the nominee's acceptance speech:
The rambling doesn’t matter. The sound bites were made. Tomorrow the clips will be Hulk Hogan intro and fist pumping 🇺🇸 glory. Shared on social to many impressionable people who don’t spend hours watching a political speech. The warrior image is cast.
— Luke Russert (@LukeRussert) July 19, 2024
How does a "warrior" ticket become a stalker ticket? The flip side of that performative machismo is resentment when anyone, especially a woman, refuses to swoon in response -- especially if she laughs instead. And oh boy, is Kamala Harris laughing. Tim Walz too, and also millions of voters.
And even though some women are spreading the joke, I see contemptuous-male energy -- specifically, eleven-year-old-boy energy -- in the GOP's many references to Walz as "Tampon Tim."
Arguably, Republicans have a wedge issue here. A bill Walz signed into law in Minnesota makes tampons available free in schools not only in girls' bathrooms, but also in boys' bathrooms. To me that's an appropriate acknowledgment of the fact that some young people who menstruate identify as male, but I can see that Republicans might want to contest that approach in this election.
However, when they attack Walz on this, they frequently don't bother to mention the boys' bathrooms. They think "Tampon Tim" is hilarious, and devastatingly effective, all by itself:
#TamponTim pic.twitter.com/eBPyEOSWPC
— Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10) August 6, 2024
No holes left unfilled. Tampon Tim Walz to the rescue. pic.twitter.com/DV2uJdfBDZ
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 6, 2024
Tampon Tim is the name. That’s it. https://t.co/TpCFhDTE5X
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) August 7, 2024
To these Republican men and male-identified Republican women, putting "Tampon" before the name of a man is inherently emasculating. (To normal people, free tampons in schools are just common decency.)
The Trump campaign really seems to believe that its candidate can win if he can just add a few additional resentful men, especially younger men, to the party's usual base.
It might have worked when Democrats had an uninspiring candidate. I don't think it's working now.
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