The timing of the “Vance is hot” discourse is more important than anything to do with his looks, although the Ozempic was clearly doing its magic and he looked much better in months.

Vance wasn’t “hot” when he was giving soliloquys to reporters at the border. He became “hot” when he mogged another man, Mr. Walz, on stage in a goofy way; and when he stood up to the moderators.

What you could feel in that moment was “JD will get angry on my behalf, and fight to make sure my* rights are respected”—not “mad” in an emotionally incontinent, bumbling way; but with sharp focus.

* in this context “my” means “non-Haitians’”, or Appalachian hill people’s, or fill-in-the-blank. It’s a sexual fantasy; I was not really concerned with his political positions at that moment, or ever really.