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Betting On ‘Weird’
She went with Mr. "weird."
Kamala Harris chose Midwestern dad Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday. So, Harris-Walz. That's the ticket. All aboard?
I don't want to say Walz was a nobody until last month. That'd be ungenerous and besides, he is the governor of Minnesota whereas I'm... well, not the governor of Minnesota. Nor of anything else that I know of.
But it's fair to say Walz's national profile was quite low until very recently when he singlehandedly (and accidentally, I think) chan
He provides a good wholesome folksy balance to the ticket. Voters who aren’t all in on the cult of personality but consider themselves to be conservative will resonate well with his style. He’s plain spoken like Trump but actually saying things that make sense.
I’m excited about the way he talks about voters. He’s about as down-to-earth as they get. Funnily enough, he represented my home town when he was in Congress. Hard to believe a guy who was swinging through town talking to local farmers back in the day now has a chance to be VP.
You think that’s hard for you to believe, you should hear some of us SF residents’ personal experiences with Kamala Harris, and then having to watch her ascent all the way to the top.
Imagine how people who had bad “personal experiences” with Donald Trump felt / still feel.
Harris had a least 3 good options and chose 1 she was reportedly comfortable with. If there is no economic collapse or foreign major blow up, my money is on the democrats now. Party is unified and has the edge.
I have not had much good to say about any leading Democrat for a very long time, and I was very disappointed that Harris went from “worst possible choice to replace Biden“ on a Saturday to “Biden’s replacement” on Sunday, but I will say I was pleasantly surprised by the range of choices she had for her VP pick. None were perfect, but most were definitely not bad, it was unusually good array of prospectives. I personally leaned from one to the other from one 24 hour news cycle to the next, but none of them seemed like a bad pick. I definitely thought Walz was among the top few. He seems like a smart pick.
JB Pritzker is a genuinely bad pick. He is not very smart, giant ego that comes with being born into serious money, he was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple, and he has not governed Illinois well. But, I am not sure that VP Harris seriously considered him. In his mind, he was serious contender.
You overall point is spot on. The Dems have some younger, serious people as Governors and a few in the Senate. The pipeline is good for that Party.
Wait, do I have to back out of my “Trump trades” now? So inconvenient!
Part of the message I give to people that are undecided is this.
“ Innocent before being proven guilty has been a very good way for poor people that are innocent to stay out of jail. The unintended consequence is that rich trust fund kids like Trump can be criminals and Lawyer their way out of repercussions. It does not make him innocent. We all know that money helps us get through life, But do we want this to be more than a simple fact of life? Trump is saying out loud that this is where it’s gonna go. Do you wanna go there?”
Weird is a good way to describe the cult of the Orange Man. To them, freedom seems to be that they can do what they want, while most everyone else is severely restricted and monitored. A lot of property-obsessed, me-centric, folks. Weird indeed.
I think his progressive policy chops will tap the populist zeitgeist nicely.
Say what you want about W, but there is some genius in his brief aphorisms. “That was some weird sh*t.” “If money doesn’t loosen up, this sucker will go down.” “If you don’t succeed, you run the risk of failure.” “Most of our impots come from other countries.” “My job is a decision-making job, and as a result, I make a lot of decisions.” “The thing that’s wrong with the French is that they don’t have a word for entrepreneur.” “It’s clearly a budget, it’s got a lot of numbers in it.”
I really miss the Reagan / Bush wing of the Republican party.
George W. was a pretty bad president, but I’d have a beer with that guy anytime.
I knew Waltz by name only until early July when I saw him speak up close and in person at a conference in San Diego. The crowd I was with (including myself) all had the same reaction: why are the Dems running Biden when you have options like this guy? He was personable, articulate, fun and came across as the type of person you would enjoy sharing a beer with. Funny how just a few weeks later the man is on the ticket, I don’t know much about his policies and beliefs, but based on the single time I have seen him speak live my guess is Waltz will be an asset to the Harris campaign.
H-Man, just watched the rally — Walz stole the show and it seemed like a Trump type arena. He has the fire in his belly. Should be an interesting 90 days.
I heard Walz speak shortly after Biden bowed out. After reflecting on it a few days, and also watching the beginning days of the Harris campaign, I realized I felt he was the best fit.
I decided for fun to buy shares on him for 5 cents on Predictit. Definitely my best “investment” in awhile. :). But mostly I’m really happy she was gutsy enough yo pick him. I think it bodes well.
I think this campaign will iterate in more positive ways with him on the ticket than it would have without him. Will voters say they voted for the ticket because of him? Not likely. But will voters be drawn to a more positive, relatable, and good humored campaign- I think they likely will.