DailyMail.com poll reveals voters found J.D. Vance ‘confident, strong and knowledgeable’ while Tim Walz seemed ‘nervous’
People who attended Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate found first-term senator and Yale Law graduate J.D. Vance “confident” and “well informed.”
But when asked what came to mind to describe how his rival Tim Walz performed, the answer was “nervous.”
The results were among the findings of a brief DailyMail.com poll conducted by J&L Partners, which agrees with many of the popular statements made by TV pundits: that Walz stumbled and failed to back up his arguments when he took the went head-to-head with the more polished Vance.
Nervous was the top word chosen by respondents wanting to describe Walz in the debate, followed by other terms including honest, confident and knowledgeable. He may have provided some visual cues that people picked up on: pausing during his first response, occasionally looking down and scribbling notes as his rival went through policy proposals and tried to dance through previous statements.
Viewers were divided over whether Walz was “weak” or “strong,” with some calling him “confused,” “caring” or “sincere.”
‘Confident’: Respondents in a DailyMail.com poll said JD Vance seemed ‘confident’ in the debate. It’s also a word many chose to describe how he made them feel
As voters assessed whether either man could run the country if necessary, it was the 40-year-old Vance, who is 20 years younger than Walz, who appeared “confident” when respondents were asked about his performance. Others called him knowledgeable, strong, arrogant, smart, intelligent and slick.
Former President Donald Trump is among the debate watchers who have taken notice of Walz’s outward anxiety.
“JD is steadfast and strong, Tampon Tim sweats bullets, he is nervous and ‘weird,’” Trump wrote as the debate was underway.
“Weird” was an insult that Walz applied to Trump and Vance in the past but ultimately didn’t come up in the debate, which turned out to be a more sympathetic exercise than many pundits expected.
Respondents described JD Vance as “confident” in the debate
Deep breath: Voters watching the debate called Walz nervous, but also honest and knowledgeable
Not only did Vance seem confident, he also made some viewers feel confident
Tim Walz committed several stumbles. Respondents in the poll, conducted by J&L Partners, said he seemed nervous
Walz’s comments included accidentally being friends with school shooters, referring to Israel and its allies when he most likely meant Iran, and occasionally calling himself a “knucklehead.”
But even if he sometimes failed to score points against Vance, who denied earlier comments calling for a nationwide abortion ban and tried to change the subject when asked whether Joe Biden had won the election, Walz left many respondents with a positive impression.
When asked how they felt listening to Walz, “hopeful” and “confident” were the top answers. “Safe” was also a common response, although it left some feeling “safe,” “annoyed,” and “confused.”
That could have happened during Walz’s quick response to his debunked claim that he had been in Hong Kong during the Chinese military response to Beijing’s Tienanmen Square.
“All I said about it was, I got there that summer. And he was wrong about this. So I’ll just – that’s what I said,” he replied.
When people were asked how Vance made them feel, “confident” was again at the top of the list. Other top responses include ‘confident’, ‘annoyed’ and ‘scared’.