August 7, 2024
On the positives Tim Walz brings to the Harris ticket...
Yesterday was fascinating. Seeing friends across the political spectrum react to the Tim Walz announcement was a Rorschach test writ large. A progressive friend of mine was thrilled with the choice. A former Republican friend was baffled by the choice but will still vote for Harris. A disaffected Democratic friend was equally baffled by the choice and will not vote for Harris. And I’m still waiting to hear back from a conservative friend, but my guess is his response will be the GIF of the wolf putting on a bib and licking his chops.
Today is about Tim Walz’s benefits for Democrats, so I won’t go into how my friends would likely have reacted to a Josh Shapiro pick but okay I’ll do it anyway. The progressive probably would have been a bit less excited but was always going to vote for Harris. The former Republican would have been more excited about Harris’ odds but was also always going to vote for Harris. The disaffected Democrat said, “It seems like Shapiro would’ve been a great pick,” but whether that pick would have been enough to get him to vote for Harris, I don’t know. And while I don’t want to speak for my conservative friend, my guess is his response would not have been a wolf in a bib.
Take from that what you will. I don’t have a horse in this race. I’m just fascinated by the intricacies of VP picks because it seems like a running mate should matter… but the statistics don’t bear that out… but our elections are so razor thin that maybe a swing state running mate (which we haven’t had since 2012) would have made the difference this year… but we’ll never know.
Anyhow, as I said, this is about the pluses Tim Walz brings to the Democratic ticket, and today’s featured columnist makes a compelling case for him, especially when it comes to boxing out the competition on populist issues. So while Republicans are licking their chops like a cartoon wolf right now, they ought to remember that, more often than not, that wolf eats his own tail.