Shamelessly biased moderators… bumbling Tim Walz… and JD Vance’s rising star reborn: JOSH HAMMER’s key takeaways from a VP battle royale – and how it could even carry Trump over the finish line in November

Minnesota Nice ran headlong into Ohio Tuesday night, as Gov. Tim Walz faced off against Sen. J.D. Vance in a CBS News vice-presidential debate in New York City.

The best Democrats can hope for is that voters watched “Dancing With The Stars” instead.

Walz was exposed as a stuttering lightweight with no business being a stone’s throw from the Oval Office, and Vance delivered the most compelling case for “America First” Trumpism yet in what may be the final debate of the election could be from 2024.

Here are the key takeaways from the VP Battle Royale in the Big Apple.

TIANANMEN TIM

From the opening exchange, Walz looked like a deer caught in the headlights; he didn’t know what was going on, but was aware that big trouble was rushing his way.

He was caught red-handed when he lied that he had been in Beijing during the deadly Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, when the Chinese communist regime brutally crushed student demonstrators.

It turns out, as even The New York Times acknowledged, that Walz was in Nebraska at the time.

From the opening exchange, Walz looked like a deer caught in the headlights; he didn’t know what was going on, but was aware that big trouble was rushing his way.

Walz pathetically called himself a “knucklehead,” but this isn’t just a matter of incompetence.

Besides the ‘folkish’ act, Tiananmen Tim is a liar at heart.

Add this lie to his long list of fabrications and blatant exaggerations; he claimed he was deployed to a war zone as a member of the National Guard (not true), that he was not drunk during his DUI arrest in 1996 (wrong), that his wife was undergoing IVF treatments (not true)… and so on it goes.

‘I’ll talk a lot. I will get caught up in the rhetoric,” Walz explained Tuesday night.

Right, there’s a word for that: liar.

Harris should have chosen Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as his running mate.

CHARMER ‘CHILDLESS CAT’

Heading into Tuesday night, J.D. Vance had one goal: prove he’s a thoughtful and composed statesman, and not a “childless cat lady” obsessed lunatic of the mainstream media’s imagination.

Success! But Vance did that and more.

The Ohio Senator delivered a Republican debate performance for the ages.

From his dexterity on basic economic issues to his handling of the opening question about the war in the Middle East, Vance hit home runs.

“Governor Walz can criticize Donald Trump’s tweets, but effective, smart diplomacy and peace through strength is the way you bring stability back to a very broken world,” he said.

Heading into Tuesday night, J.D. Vance had one goal: prove he’s a thoughtful and composed statesman, and not a “childless cat lady” obsessed lunatic.

‘When did Iran and Hamas and their allies attack Israel? It was during the Kamala Harris administration,” Vance asked and answered.

After Trump picked the 40-year-old author turned venture capitalist and populist politician in July, many questioned the choice.

Those days are now over.

Talk about hillbilly energy.

Vance even showed something that is rare on a debate stage: humility.

He admitted that Republicans are not convincing voters to side with them on the thorny issue of abortion.

“We have to do so much better to regain the trust of the American people on this issue, where, quite frankly, they just don’t trust us,” he said.

Vance operates on a completely different playing field than Walz, and it showed last night – enormous.

If only his boss could be so eloquent.

MODERATORS LOSE BIG

Just as the Ohioan highlighted the affair on Tuesday night, the CBS News moderators dragged it down, delivering a shoddy performance that doubled as an in-kind contribution from Harris-Walz.

Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan of CBS News were as catastrophically biased as David Muir and Linsey Davis of ABC News were during Trump’s debate against Harris last month — maybe even more so.

Despite pre-debate assurances that there would be no real-time fact-checking, O’Donnell and Brennan did it anyway – and only against Vance.

Walz, on the other hand, was not “fact-checked” once.

Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan of CBS News were as catastrophically biased as David Muir and Linsey Davis of ABC News during Trump’s debate against Harris last month.

In one of the evening’s most embarrassing moments, Brennan sloppily attempted to undermine Vance by stating that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Illinois had entered the United States through a legal process.

What she didn’t mention is that many were likely admitted through a dubious new migration pipeline set up by the Biden administration to bypass Congress and expedite alien admissions.

When Vance tried to correct the record, they cut off his microphone – and hurriedly tried to move on to the next topic.

Walz, on the other hand, never got the silent treatment – ​​although, to be fair, he was more than happy to stop talking.

Funny how that works!

O’Donnell and Brennan also studiously avoided questions about energy policy, radical progressive transgender activism and Harris’s numerous flip-flops — three key winning issues for Republicans.

They also didn’t ask Walz how Harris could campaign as an “outsider” despite the fact that she is the sitting vice president.

In contrast, the moderators brought up “climate change” within five minutes of the match.

Priorities!

REFRESHING DOSE Boring politeness

Despite the notable difference in intellectual horsepower between the two men, the debate maintained a typical Midwestern civility throughout.

What fun to watch a debate for one of the highest offices in the land, minus the mudslinging!

There will be some old-school conservative Reaganite purists who are angry about the extent to which Vance agreed with Walz — especially on issues like trade, tariffs and a government role in child care.

Such people must move with the times.

There has been a decade of populist revolution spreading through American politics – and Vance’s approach represents the future of the Republican Party.

Despite the notable difference in intellectual horsepower between the two men, the debate maintained a typical Midwestern civility throughout.

What fun to watch a debate for one of the highest offices in the land, minus the mudslinging!

So will this VP debate move the electoral needle?

History tells us no.

But this election is so incredibly close that everything matters – even at the margins.

Walz was put on the Democratic ticket to appeal to male voters in America’s Rust Belt voters — but I can’t imagine how his embarrassing Biden-esque performance could impress anyone.

On the other hand, Vance has probably won over some skeptical women who may have bought into the caricature of Vance as a villain.

If this race comes down to tens of thousands of votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Ohio Smart’s win over Minnesota might just make the difference.

Josh Hammer is the syndicated host of “The Josh Hammer Show” and editor-in-chief at Newsweek.