Some Daily Kos community members are excited about Tim Kaine, others … less so. One thing I can say for sure, though, is that while I was familiar with the broad strokes of Kaine’s career, there’s plenty I didn’t know about him, and judging from many of the comments I’ve read, I’m not alone. I’ve also found that the more I’ve learned about Kaine, the more I’ve grown to like him—a sentiment that, again, it’s apparent quite a few others here share.
So in the spirit of further learning, I’m posting this open thread in the hopes that we can all share links that will teach us more about Kaine, whether positive or negative. I’d encourage folks to post newspaper articles, YouTube videos, profiles, editorials, you name it. Anything that you’ve found informative about the life and career of Tim Kaine is fair game.
And if I can get us started, I’d like to suggest this excellent Washington Post profile of Kaine from his successful 2005 bid for governor. As a narrative hook, it describes in great detail Kaine’s journey to the Honduras as a missionary in 1980-81, when he worked with some exceptionally poor people and while there, learned to speak fluent Spanish. But there are a ton of great tidbits about a range of things. Here are a few I appreciated:
"In high school -- and this was in the mid-70s -- we had geeks and freaks and jocks and dopers and everything else, and there wasn't a group that Tim couldn't fit into," Immenschuh said. "The thing about him is that he was always completely comfortable in his own skin. He would be at a party where pot was being smoked, and he wouldn't have to smoke it to fit in."
Kaine settled into a small firm, and his first case was a civil rights suit in which a black woman had been denied an apartment because of her race. Kaine won it.
He drives a pickup, is an expert on baseball trivia, likes to hit a bucket of golf balls to relax and doesn't have cable TV because he doesn't want his three children parked in front of the set (and, just as important, doesn't want himself parked there either, watching sports). His neighbors in Richmond have ESPN and allow him to visit for a big game, such as Virginia Tech-Maryland.
Have any good ones? Please drop them in comments!