Did Tim Ryan plan to debate J.D. Vance last night in Ohio, or Donald Trump? At times, it appeared that Ryan would have preferred the latter, according to a recap of the Senate election debate from The Hill. While Vance tied Ryan firmly to a deeply unpopular Joe Biden — and rightly so, as Ryan has voted in lockstep for Biden’s initiatives — Ryan tried doing the reverse to Vance by tying him to the former president.

There’s just one wee little problem with this strategy:

While Ryan branded Vance an “ass-kisser” to former President Trump, Vance worked to tie Ryan to President Biden. …

“Tim Ryan, of course, has supported all of these policies a hundred percent of the time,” Vance said. “I believe we’ve gone in a fundamentally bad direction over the last couple of years. I think people deserve to go to the grocery store without it completely breaking the bank. Tim Ryan has voted with these policies a hundred percent of the time. Every time he gets an opportunity to stand with Ohioans, he chooses to bend the knee to his own party.”

Ryan, meanwhile, brought up a Youngstown rally Trump held for Vance last month in an effort to underscore the Republican’s fealty to the former president. During the rally, Trump said that Vance, his former critic, was “in love” with him and was “kissing my ass” for support.

Can anyone else see the flaw in Ryan’s plan? All one has to do is look back at Trump’s election results in the state two years ago, when he beat Biden by eight points, 53/45. Trump beat Hillary Clinton by slightly more four years before that, 52/43.

By contrast, not only did Biden lose by a wide margin to Trump in Ohio two years ago, he’s even less popular now. A recent Marist poll giving Vance a single-point lead in this race also put Biden’s job approval at 37/53. Even among those who voted for Biden two years ago, 11% disapprove of the job he’s doing. This is precisely the comparison Ryan should have avoided, and yet he’s reminding everyone that Vance is with the more popular of the two figures, at least in Ohio.

Perhaps this is all Ryan has, however — that and abortion, which in the same poll comes in a distant third (18%) to inflation (36%) in a poll that never mentions crime or any other economic issue. (“Preserving democracy,” a label that begs the question, gets 27%.) But abortion got Ryan in trouble when Vance demonstrated his preparation for an argument he knew was coming:

#TRENDING NOW: J. D. Vance Eviscerates Tim Ryan during Ohio Senate debate.

"You voted so many times against border wall funding…If you had done your job, she would have never been raped in the first place.” pic.twitter.com/ESUMYEplQV

— Trending 911 (@trending911) October 11, 2022

But Vance hit back against Ryan, calling him extreme when it came to issues like abortion and immigration. At one point, the Republican cited Ryan’s comments about a 10-year-old Ohio girl who was raped and sought an abortion in Indiana due to Ohio’s abortion restrictions. Vance tied the incident to the immigration issue.

“You voted so many times against border wall funding, so many times for amnesty, Tim,” he said. “If you had done your job, she would have never been raped in the first place. Do your job on border security, don’t lecture me about opinions I don’t actually have.”

Vance also said he supports “reasonable exceptions” for abortion bans, which is why he offered that final riposte at the end. What would those be? Rape and incest, clearly, since that relates to this specific case, which Vance said should have been able to be concluded in Ohio rather than Indiana. More to the point, however, the issue here is in state law, not federal law, which makes this entire issue a non-sequitur for an election debate for the US Senate.

Given the track of this race and the political environment, all Vance had to do was make himself a legitimate option. That’s much like Blake Masters’ position before his debate with Mark Kelly in Arizona — demonstrate seriousness and mainstream politics after getting painted as extreme by Democrats in the run-up. It seems both men succeeded at that, and did even better than meet expectations. That’s worse news for Ryan than it is for Kelly, given that Vance’s fellow Republican Mike DeWine is clobbering Ryan’s fellow Democrat in the gubernatorial race, 55/37, in the same Marist poll. Bet on DeWine’s coattails getting significantly longer after last night’s debate, especially with Ryan doubling down on his stupid strategies.

Update: Speaking of stupid strategies, Ryan’s declaration of multiple litmus tests alarmed George Washington U law professor Jonathan Turley:

For decades, politicians in both parties agreed that it was anathema in our legal system to impose a litmus test on judicial nominees. Now, however, litmus tests appear the rage, particularly on the left. Indeed, in this week’s Ohio debate, senatorial candidate candidate Tim Ryan (D) outdid his colleagues in not just promising one but multiple litmus tests for judicial nominees.

“I will have a litmus test on Roe v Wade, I’ll have a litmus test on the same-sex marriage, I’ll have a litmus test on birth control. We can’t keep going down this road of taking away rights.”

Instead, Ryan was promising to continue to go down the road of confirmation based on promises on future votes by a judge or justice.  While it no doubt thrilled his base, it should appall anyone who cares about the integrity of our judicial system. Indeed, Ryan was taking a position adamantly opposed by liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg. …

Ryan’s answer shows the danger of threshold litmus-test politics. With these three threshold tests, there will be demands for others. What about gender identity, gun control, immigration and other issues? Different groups will cry foul if their issues are not weighed equally with these other issues in threshold conditions.

That is the slippery slope of litmus tests.

It’s also the slippery slope of progressivism within the Democratic Party. Ryan wants to sell himself as a moderate; instead, he’s nothing but a stalking horse for the radical wing of his party.