Jennings on Vance comments about Ramaswamy ad: ‘He could have just ignored it’
Jennings makes a practical point. When a campaign rolls out an ad that gets attention, a surrogate like the vice president has options: defend it loudly, sidestep it, or say nothing. Jennings thinks the last one was available and smart, and he's probably right that ignoring it would have kept the story from growing. Once Vance engaged, the ad earned another news cycle, and the other campaign gets to ride along.
This matters because it shows how quickly a state race gets pulled into national politics. Ohio's governor's contest has its own voters and its own stakes, but a sitting vice president commenting on a local ad shifts the story. It stops being about what Ohioans think and becomes about whether Vance handled the moment well, which is exactly the sort of distraction Ramaswamy's rival would welcome.
I'd want to know what Vance actually said, since Jennings's critique hinges on the substance of those comments. If Vance merely defended a campaign decision, that's routine. If he went after the rival's family directly, that's a different situation entirely. Without the full quote I can't fully judge whether Jennings is being fair or generous. Either way, the advice to let the ad speak for itself sounds reasonable for anyone holding a microphone.