People who tuned in for Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate found first-term senator and Yale Law grad J.D. Vance to be ‘confident’ and ‘knowledgeable.’
But when asked what came to mind to describe how his rival Tim Walz performed, the top response was ‘nervous.’
The results were among the findings of an DailyMail.com snap poll conducted by J&L Partners that conforms with many of the hot takes of TV pundits: that Walz stumbled and failed to land his arguments as he went toe to toe with the more polished Vance.
Nervous was the top word selected by respondents asked to describe Walz in the debate, followed by other terms including honest, confident and knowledgeable. He may have given some visual cues that people picked up on: pausing during his first answer, looking down at times, and scribbling notes while his rival ran through policy proposals and tried to dance through past statements.
Viewers were split on whether Walz was ‘weak’ or ‘strong,’ with some calling him ‘confused,’ ‘caring,’ or ‘genuine.’
‘Confident’: Respondents in a DailyMail.com poll said J.D. Vance appeared ‘confident’ in the debate. It is also a word that many picked to describe how he made them feel
With voters judging whether either man could step in to run the country if needed, it was Vance, 40, who is 20 years Walz’s junior, who came off as ‘confident’ when respondents were asked about his performance. Others called him knowledgable, strong, arrogant, smart, intelligent, and slick.
Former President Donald Trump is among debate watchers who were keyed in on Walz’s outward anxiety.
‘JD is steady and strong, Tampon Tim is sweating bullets, he is nervous and “weird,” Trump posted while the debate was underway.
‘Weird’ was an insult, which Walz in the past applied to Trump and Vance, that ended up not coming up in the debate, which proved to be a more congenial exercise than many pundits were expectin.
Respondents described JD Vance as ‘confident’ in the debate
Deep breath: Voters who watched the debate identified Walz as being nervous, as well as honest and knowledgeable
Not only did Vance appear confident, he made some viewers feel confident
Tim Walz committed several stumbles. Respondents in the poll, conducted by J&L Partners, said he appeared nervous
Among Walz’s flubs were accidentally saying he was friends with school shooters, referencing Isreal and its proxies when he most likely meant Iran, and calling himself an occasional ‘knucklehead.’
But even if he sometimes failed to score points against Vance, who denied past comments calling for a nationwide abortion ban and tried to change the subject when asked if Joe Biden won the election, Walz left a positive impression on many respondents.
Asked how listening to Walz made them feel, ‘hopeful’ and ‘confident’ were top responses. ‘Safe’ was another top answer, although he made some feel ‘secure,’ ‘annoyed,’ and ‘confused.’
That could have happened during Walz’s rapid-fire answer about his debunked claim to have been in Hong Kong during Chinese military response to Tienanmen Sqaure in Beijing.
‘All’s I said on this was, is, I got there that summer. And misspoke on this. So I will just — that’s what I’ve said,’ he responded.
When people were asked how Vance made them feel, ‘confident’ again topoped the list. Other top responese include ‘confident, ‘annoyed’ and ‘scared.’