Vancing the Night Away

Since becoming vice president, JD Vance has been starring in his own version of “The Greatest Showman.” His performance isn’t living up to the advance billing, and the reviews are growing worse. When does the overexposed veep take a cue from more successful predecessors?

Mr. Vance’s struggles were acutely on view these past weeks, and only the latest in a lather-rinse-repeat cycle. He began this round in Budapest, with a high-profile speech for the re-election of a MAGA hero, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. On to Pakistan, where he played the central role in negotiations over Iran. Back to the U.S., where in Georgia on Tuesday he spoke to the hottest grassroots group going, Turning Point USA.

To quibble with P.T. Barnum, there is definitely such a thing as bad publicity. Mr. Orbán lost in a landslide, the Iran talks collapsed, and the headline of Turning Point was that Mr. Vance had little by way of response to the antiwar heckling of President Trump.

Being vice president ain’t beanbag. No one takes the job for the “work”—as there isn’t much, officially. What few duties the Constitution gives the vice president (presiding over and breaking ties in the Senate, taking over for a dead president) are rarely exercised, while every other job worth doing already has its own cabinet secretary or czar. There’s no independent power, since the boss calls all the shots. If Mike Rowe had a series called “Unrewarding Jobs,” this would be lead segment.

Since Walter Mondale, vice presidents have come to view their role as that of top adviser to the president—senior troubleshooter, constant surrogate, head of a few special “portfolios.” This is all best done diligently and in the president’s shadow, with any eye to the only real prize the vice presidency holds: poll position in the next presidential nomination contest. Yet the question always dogs veeps: How to proclaim their good work and clinch that nomination?

Mr. Vance’s approach is all show and all tell. He’s everywhere, all the time—squeezing out every opportunity to let America know how central he is to the Trump operation and the “new” Republican coalition.

He’s at the March for Life, calling for a baby renaissance. He’s at the Munich Security Conference, berating European allies. He’s in the Oval Office, goading the Ukrainian president into an argument. He’s trekking Greenland, threatening to make it America’s. He’s in Rome, meeting not one but two popes. He’s all over government, rooting out fraud. Mr. Vance’s team makes certain the press is all over his schedule. None of it is subtle, or second fiddle.

Most notable is his insistent need to “translate” the president in a way that pulls the party toward Mr. Vance’s own vision—his more populist takes on deportations, millionaires, cryptocurrency, labor policy, war. The pitch is never quite Trump. It’s very Vance.

That, and the veep’s refusal to ditch, or push back against, those who have ditched his own boss. They include big names, like Tucker Carlson, but also members of the public. At the Turning Point event, Mr. Vance was given a softball opening to make the moral and strategic case for Mr. Trump’s actions in Iran. Instead he said: “I recognize that young voters do not love the policy we have in the Middle East, OK. I understand.” He then talked about the administration’s domestic achievements and encouraged young people to “get more involved in this process and demand more from people like me.” The answer seemed to be inviting criticism of muscular deterrence.

It’s a method, to be sure, but it isn’t working. At the Conservative Political Action Conference in March, 53% of attendees said Mr. Vance was their top choice to be the next president. Sounds good, but that’s an 8-point drop from the year before—after a full year of showmanship.

The most successful vice presidents are those who understand this basic rule: Their fate is tied to that of their boss. A model is Mr. Trump’s first vice president, Mike Pence, who spent four long and loyal years as the administration’s recruiter, legislative liaison, international backup, and the head of key priorities like the National Space Council and the Covid task force. That work helped produce a rocking economy, and while Mr. Pence was never front and center, word of his role got out. He was heralded right up until Mr. Trump unfairly turned against him over the 2020 election.

Mr. Vance might follow the example of a current prospective rival. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is pursuing the Pence model: Put your head down, do the work, let the results speak. A year ago, 3% of CPAC attendees rated Mr. Rubio their top choice. This time he got 35%. The more Mr. Vance thrusts himself into the fray, hopping up and down for attention, the more Mr. Rubio looks presidential.

As Barnum once said: “No man has a right to expect to succeed in life unless he understands his business.” Veeping isn’t for the unstrategic.

Write to kim@wsj.com.

POTOMAC WATCH

By Kimberley A. Strassel