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) changed his party’s messaging around the MAGA ticket.
Americans are tired of hearing that “democracy’s on the ballot.” You either understand why Trump and the GOP are a threat to America’s system of governance or you don’t, and at this point, even people who do are exhausted with that messaging.
Democrats needed a fresh line of attack that was poignant without being existential and derisive without being condescending. Walz provided that when, during an appearance on MSNBC, he said, of Trump and JD Vance, “These guys are just weird.”
That characterization quickly went viral. The clip below finds Walz explaining what he meant.
When Hillary Clinton calls you “deplorable,” you’re likely to chafe: “Here’s a member of the political aristocracy calling me an ignorant redneck,” you’ll say. Then: “F-k that, I’m voting for Trump.” But when some regular guy from the middle of Nebraska’s sprawling nowhere suggests, in passing, that you might be in thrall to a couple of weirdos in Trump and Vance, it might give you pause.
Tim taught geography at Mankato West High School, where he coached the football team. Apparently to a state championship.
In a GOTV video posted to his social media accounts late last month, Walz introduced himself to new followers: “Hey everybody, Minnesota governor Tim Walz here. Excitement in the air, feels like the first day of school.” He’s standing in what looks like his yard. Some manner of family dog — a Labrador maybe — wanders into the frame behind him. “As a football coach, we’re back on offense. Vice President Harris is bringing the energy and getting folks fired up.” The dog meanders around and eventually exits the frame as a very casual Walz suggests it’s time to “bring some joy back into our politics.”
The juxtaposition between that kind of backyard campaigning and the overwrought, gaudy theatrics of Trump (not to mention Vance’s zeal of the convert) could scarcely be any more stark.
Importantly, Walz isn’t trying to alienate anyone. The opposite, in fact. During an interview with Ezra Klein a few days ago, Walz — who won six straight House races in a district that went for Trump in 2016 by 17 points — described his approach to the MAGA faithful. “I think Democrats’ way out of this is with optimism and a sense of grace toward folks,” he said. “I want to be very careful. [T]hose folks at [Trump’s] rallies — you insult them at great peril. Your neighbor is flying the [MAGA] flag. [T]hey’re my relatives. They truly are, and I know them.”
Republicans will invariably say Walz is an “extremist.” A “dangerous liberal.” But that may be a hard sell and an even harder smear. Trump will surely find some disparaging nickname — “Terrible Tim,” maybe — that resonates with a fanbase comprised of people who’d run over their child’s high school football coach if Trump said that’s what’s necessary to make America great again. But Walz doesn’t present as any sort of villain. He really doesn’t.
Some Democrats — donors in particular — will say Harris should’ve gone with Josh Shapiro. That she got too swept up in Walz’s “weird” wave. The GOP will claim Harris is an anti-Semite for passing over Shapiro. I doubt that’ll stick.
Plainly, you want to win Pennsylvania. But I assume Harris’s team carefully considered whether “snubbing” (and that’s certainly not how Shapiro will view the Walz pick) the governor might impact her odds of carrying the state. Harris’s first rally with Walz at her side will be in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. Shapiro will apparently introduce them.
It’s worth noting that Walz actually didn’t originate the “weird” characterization of Trump’s “American carnage” shtick. Following Trump’s inauguration speech in January of 2017, a bemused George W. Bush reportedly said, of Trump’s address, “That was some weird sh-t.”
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.