Originally published at: Kamala picks Tim Walz for VP, and Trump struggles with spelling - Boing Boing
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Not my first choice. But being in his second term he isn’t going to be vacating a contested position.
Pretty sure he can tear JD Vance a new one if there is a VP debate.
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I’m sure that the brocialists will find some way in which he fails their purity test, but Walz seems like a reasonable choice. He just has to keep attacking hard and showing that populism is not the exclusive domain of right-wing extremists like Vance.
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Full steam ahead.
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Anyone from Minnesota here who can give their opinion on how he’s been as governor?
I haven’t heard of him before now, but his write-up seems to be positive.
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I was rooting for Buttigieg or Shapiro, but I’m sure Walz is completely capable.
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Walz is the most progressive of the finalists. He has pretty good support among progressives. Bernie supported him for the VP pick.
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Hooray!
ETA, this made my day before the first sip of caffeine hit my lips.
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The two-term governor, who also served a dozen years in Congress, has racked up an impressive legislative record, especially in his second term. He signed bills to create a paid family and medical leave program; provide for universal free school meals; legalize recreational marijuana; sharply increase tax credits for low-income families; and boost sales and gas taxes for transportation and housing.
“Governor Walz has been a strong leader, a great partner with the Legislature, and is an excellent choice for vice president,” said Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park. “We worked together over the last two years on the most productive session in Minnesota in decades, passing policies that will help Minnesotans build better lives for themselves and their families.”
Minnesota Republicans say Walz has changed the North Star State for the worse. Minnesota House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, wrote recently that “past two years featured some of the most extreme and irresponsible policies we’ve ever seen in our state,” citing tax and fee increases, unsustainable new spending, energy mandates that will hike rates and a rise in the cost of Uber and Lyft rides.
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I genuinely think that extends to other voters as well. 70% of voters want things like school lunches, protections for LGBTQ+ people, labour rights, reproductive rights, single-payer health insurance, measures to address the climate emergency, and other progressive positions. The choice of a governor who championed those policies could highlight that fact.
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I was rooting for Kelly. I am sure he can do the job. Democrats have a deep bench. Republicans are hampered by the need of a co-conspirator for The Donvict’s shenanigans.
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I saw some video a couple weeks ago where this guy ran down the people in the running, and IIRC he came up with Walz as the pick. He did a quick break down, and it was hard to argue with his logic, though I felt at the time it was oversimplified. But I guess he was right! I wish I had saved that to rewatch it.
Anyway. I think he will do. He seems way more capable and likable than Vance.
Also, as I understand if/when he wins, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan will be the first Native American governor (most articles are saying first woman governor, though I think the first Native governor period).
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Walz has seemed to be the “he ain’t exciting but this guy ticks every box and knows how to campaign” candidate from the start. Everyone else had some “making the ticket too radical” view, and for once, the most progressive dude is the least radical problem, and heading center right wasn’t the way.
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That weak article by Demuth shows how bankrupt the modern GOP is on policy. Whatever her criticisms of Walz’s administration are, her party offers nothing substantive as remedies (and what their ideology does offer would make the situations she complains about worse).
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Oh, he is awesome! He has delivered a lot of good for the state. Free school lunches for every child, requiring paid leave, putting abortion rights into state law, banned non-compete clauses in employment contracts, other stuff I don’t recall (and not because he legalized weed.)
He used to be a gun advocate, but after a school shooting he has backed gun restrictions, and gave back all the money the NRA had given him in the past. The NRA now officially hates him, so that’s also a good endorsement.
He struggled with the George Floyd incident and half-heartedly backed police reforms that never amounted to anything of value. So that’s a negative, but not something Trump will have as an advantage.
We really like him. The MAGAts in Minnesota also despise him, so he must be doing something right.
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Agreed! And also, I think his somewhat bland, “plain-spoken” persona is a good counterbalance to that. He comes across less like the crazed caricature of a leftist that Bernie kinda embodied all too well.
In conclusion:
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Well yeah…it says a lot about this country that those things are considered progressive. They shouldn’t be. Those should be centrist positions almost everyone can agree on, but here we are.
And unlike the other side’s VP pick, Walz’s plain-spoke Middle America personality isn’t an act. He was an enlisted member of the Army National Guard and a teacher for 20 years. He just entered politics in 2006 at the age of 42. He’s an actual citizen-politician, but isn’t a populist. He really seems like the genuine article.
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