Moderating: Getting pretty off-topic now. Sorry, I’m going to hide your post.
I hadn’t heard of any of them except Buttigieg, and I’m moderately politically alert. I don’t think that’s an issue at all. I’m general, most voters haven’t heard of the Veep candidate until they are in the election spotlight.
Quite so. See Kaine, Pence, Palin, Quayle, etc.
I’ve seen that repeated several times—because it does ring true. Vance pretends to be the Midwestern/rural guy of humble origins who raised himself up by his own bootstraps. But actually he’s been raised mainly because he caught the fancy of an ultra-right-wing billionaire (Peter Thiel).
Whereas Tim Walz really is the guy in the image: humble Midwestern roots and bootstraps-rise and all.
And most importantly: Walz appears to possess actual decency—a trait Vance doesn’t even recognize as being an actual thing.
Walz is a great choice. In these image-conscious times, his ‘happy warrior’ persona, beside Harris’s laugh and positivity, will form a massive contrast to the Trump/Vance trademarked Apocalyptic Hate-Mongering Negativity.
It’s American Hope vs. American Carnage.
I like his take on bootstraps in this clip, starting at about 7:10.
So a bit from the NYT today that the ticket headed by a convicted felon and rapist is attacking Walz over a 1995 drunk driving incident.
Here’s what stands out to me:
“Decency” is good word. The contrast is dramatic.
Clearly he should have blamed the Marxist prosecutor and conflicted judge.
This is absolutely hilarious! Trump joined the Republican bandwagon attacking Walz as a “radical leftist” by making the following statement today:
Embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote, Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide
I guess the advantage of being a clueless moron is that the Orange Felon can make statements like that with no sense of irony or shame.
On a slightly different angle, I made a few comments earlier when it looked like Walz was going to be the choice, but now that’s it’s confirmed I’ll join many others in saying how thrilled I am with the choice (not to mention how happy I am that it isn’t Shapiro). And maybe it’s just me, but Walz’s genial good nature and progressivism seems to highlight more than ever, in very stark terms, the difference between Team Harris and Team Trump, essentially the difference between competence and compassion versus ignorance and pure evil. It’s astounding to me that Americans have to think about what choice they should make.
Sadly, you should never discount the ability of this country to screw the pooch (no offense intended) on gobsmackingly obvious decisions like this.
Damn, Shapiro has me cheering from my couch. I love his GSD reference. Getting Shit Done.
Feeling hopeful. Feels alien.
I quoted this recently to a friend about the various VP choices (both JD Vance and Harris’ future pick), and think it bears mentioning to the above points:
“When you’re born into this world, you’re given a ticket to the freak show. If you’re born in America you get a front row seat.”
― George Carlin
However, and to the point of the thread, there is a concerted effort by Harris and Walz (historically) to try to limit the crazy, and push on with, you know, the business of government. Which, agreeing with @wolfpup, the Democratic Party is trying to boost:
[ please pardon my snip, I think I preserved your meaning though]
One additional advantage to Walz though, is that a key MAGA tactic has been driving FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) - make Biden scary (he’s controlled by XYZ, he’s a zombie, he’s on drugs), make Harris scary (POC / liberal / different / other), and so on and so forth. But when you look at Walz, it’s really hard to imagine him that way. Sure, they’ll continue to do it, but he’s a LOT harder target than most. (sorry, Shapiro, Polis, Buttigieg, it’s not fair, but you’re easier targets, doesn’t mean you deserve poor treatment for your choices and faith)
I didn’t know anything about Walz before now. I love him! He’s great. Perhaps one of the few American politicians I wouldn’t mind in Canada. He is super likeable, especially compared to Vance. What a contrast. He speaks well. Very progressive, which is important to a lot of younger voters. All in all, a great pick.
Shapiro is totally on board with the Walz talking points.
I like this video - as stated, Can’t imagine Trump or Vance doing thus:
Brian
(cant get to embed- Walz talks and plays with dog)
Please see new thread: