A decisive Vance victory was on the lips of many observers after the October 1 Vice Presidential Debate between Ohio Senator J.D. Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Ten minutes before the debate’s scheduled end, most of the top five trends on X were decidedly against Harris’ running mate.

“Vance” was the top trending topic, followed by an irrelevant wrestling event, then “Tampon Tim,” “Margaret/Nora [the first names of the moderators],” and “Tiananmen Square.”

Tampon Tim is a derogatory nickname used for Walz because of his signing HF 2497 into law, a bill that supported adding female menstrual products to boys’ bathrooms in Minnesota.

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Moderators of last night’s debate, Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell, were trending because many debate watchers viewed them as incompetent, and some were outraged when CBS chose to cut Vance’s mic when the candidate fact-checked the moderators about their non-sequitur that many Haitian migrants in Ohio have legal status.

Tiananmen Square was trending because Walz was perceived as unable to sufficiently answer why he had previously stated he’d visited Hong Kong in the spring of 1989 during the protests. Ultimately, Walz said he “misspoke.”

The Vegas betting lines initially overwhelmingly favored Walz pre-debate. At 2:30 p.m., just a few hours before the debate, the odds soared to 71% that Walz would win, “according to the polls.”

However, by 10:30 p.m., after the debate’s conclusion, these figures had cratered and almost entirely inverted. According to Polymarket, the odds were just 33% that Walz would be considered the victor.

As of 11:00 a.m. on October 2, Walz’s odds have not significantly rallied.

The first commentators to react after the debate on CNN, NBC, and Fox News all stated that Vance gave a superior performance.

Author Ann Coulter and election guru Ryan Girdusky reacted in a podcast on her Substack Unsafe and expressed their satisfaction with Vance’s performance. Both viewed Vance as prepared and articulate and Walz as stilted and dishonest.

However, not everyone agreed. The official Twitter account for the Democrat Party declared Walz the winner. “Tonight’s winner,” the account said, alongside an image of Walz.

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