Three days ago, Nate Silver wrote that Harris should pick Shapiro. (I argued against him, and against Mark Penn, in saying that it should/will be Walz — my tealeafing skills are intact!) Harris ignored both of them, as well she should have. She probably ignored me, too, but I can live with that. Silver, on the other hand, is having a sad because she didn’t listen to him.
Tim Walz is a Minnesota Nice choice
It’s a nice pick: Walz, a two-term governor and six-term U.S. Representative, is from the family of Tim Kaine-style VP choices: inoffensive, unlikely to cause any harm, “safe”. Although maybe that’s unfair: Walz is likely to be better on the stump than Kaine. If you surveyed Democratic members of Congress, he’d probably be who they’d choose. But I believe he’s probably the wrong choice, a step back toward the Democratic Party’s instincts to triangulate instead of the boldness the Harris campaign has displayed so far.
Say what? Walz is likely to do a great deal of harm — to the Vump / Trance ticket. (Yes, I’ve taken to calling them that sometimes. It’s another way of saying how mixed up they are.) Silver never mentions that Walz is the guy who made “weird” go viral, which the GOP still doesn’t know how to respond to (“I know you are, but what am I?” is the most they’ve come up with). And Silver thinks Walz is “inoffensive”??!!! OK, Walz sometimes has a “nice” way of sticking the shiv, but it’s still a shiv, and Trump got badly shafted.
There’s more:
Playwright and corporate communications consultant Syl Jones suggested that Minnesota nice is not so much about being "nice" but is more about keeping up appearances, maintaining the social order, and keeping people (including non-natives of the state) in their place.
Again, huh? Walz is the guy who welcomed the Somalis, who made sure they got properly settled, and who brags about how well they’ve integrated into Minnesota.
Walz, for his part, has regularly attended Iftar dinners and Eid-al-Fitr celebrations, welcomed a Muslim delegation with a speech during a Muslim Day at the Capitol in 2019, visited Muslim communities that have been victimized by vandalism, and spoken at events hosted by local chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and others geared toward pushing back against Islamophobia. Five Faith Facts About Harris Pick Tim Walz, a ‘Minnesota Lutheran’ Dad
(The rest of the Word&Way article is equally interesting.)
I haven’t come across anything from Mark Penn yet (and don’t intend to look), but I’m sure he’s equally annoyed that Harris wouldn’t listen to him, either. She didn’t listen to Taegan Goddard either, but he accepted her choice with somewhat better grace: “In many ways, Tim Walz is the person J.D. Vance pretends to be. He’s an authentic, decent and normal guy.” but also “Walz seems to be the less-divisive and safer choice and embodies the “first, do no harm” philosophy.”)
Now, let’s go and win it for Harris / Walz!
