BREAKING: Kamala chooses Tim Walz as her running mate

I wish five-year-veteran Minnesota governor Tim Walz good luck against Yale-educated JD Vance in the upcoming veep debate. Walz was somehow lucky or unlucky enough to hitch his wagon to the Brat train, as he is now Kamala Harris's official running mate. 

Perhaps Kamala saw Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro's Jewishness as a red flag because she's been trying hard to pander to the Muslim community (not to mention Shapiro's legal issues revolving around sexual harassment—whether he's guilty or not). Shapiro might have helped Kamala to capture the all-important Rust Belt states, most of which had voted for Trump in 2016, then turned against him (ostensibly... for the moment, we'll pretend there was no cheat) in 2020, and are now turning back to him after four years of Biden remorse. But Shapiro is now out of the running. One person on Twitter/X cracked that Shapiro, who is Jewish but recently apologized for pro-Israel statements made long ago, "stitched his foreskin back on for nothing." A lot of people had put their money on Shapiro being the running mate, but Kamala (or more likely, her people) pulled an almost Trump-style switcheroo. 

So it looks to me as if, barring shenanigans, the Rust Belt is going to swing Trumpward again this year. But the addition of Walz might very well keep Minnesota—which is not a Rust Belt state—from going red; many of the poll-watchers I see on YouTube (Red Eagle Politics, Gold Crown politics, HYPR Rewind, etc.) have been assuming that Minnesota could be a "lean Trump" state this election cycle. With the state's governor now running with Harris, the state itself might turn collectively against Trump. (Frankly, I think it'd be funny if it didn't.)

Tim Walz himself looks a bit like a fusion of a garden gnome, some cartoon character, and Don Rickles. Walz was born and raised in Nebraska, where he lived through college. It wasn't until grad school that he moved to Minnesota and started to grow roots there (Minnesota State University). He's worked in agriculture, manufacturing, and education. He worked as an artillery officer in the Army National Guard, which he'd joined at 17, retiring at the rank of master sergeant in 2005. He's been a zoon politikon ever since, first working for John Kerry's doomed political campaign. Since 2019, Walz has been governor of Minnesota, an infamously blue-voting state. It says a lot that Trump might possibly turn the state red this year, but with Walz now on the big ticket, that seems less likely.

Here's Styx breaking the news of Walz's selection by Harris:

And here's Styx reminding us that Harris is a psycho (while listing some of Trump's recent tactical mistakes):

My impression is that Walz is far more intellectual than Harris. He brings brains to the table—something Harris sorely lacks. But he's also blander and more moderate than Harris, arguably a good counterbalance to her unhinged woke leftism. Harris, in picking someone so bland, may be making the same calculation as Trump: don't choose an alpha who might upstage you. Trump picked the fairly bland and milquetoast JD Vance (who is nevertheless making a name for himself by saying some potentially kooky things that offend some of the wine moms), and Harris has chosen her own version of Vance by picking Tim Walz.

In one of the above videos, Styx warns that Trump needs to get on the ball and ensure that, come November, it's a crushing defeat of Harris. Trump is making mistakes right now that could cost him some crucial electoral votes, e.g., not demanding that he and Harris debate twice (including once on Fox to give Harris the same into-the-lion's-den experience Trump got on CNN when he debated the senile and out-of-it Biden), giving Harris time to hide and craft her next scripted appearances, etc. He needs to put Harris front and center and have her speak in an unscripted manner so that people can see for themselves just how utterly stupid she is (great example of word salad here, when the woman has no script to lean on).

In all, I think Walz may actually be a good choice for Kamala. He balances her out. He's also arguably responsible for the popular "just weird" meme that's being used to attack Trump and Vance. But there's always a chance that he might implode on his own. We'll see in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, speaking of implosions, the markets are crashing, and Kamala now has to explain how the "Bidenomics" she has been cheering is somehow not responsible for this mess. Meanwhile, Trump is off on the sidelines, trolling Harris and Biden with loud "I told you so"s. I feel a bit sorry for Walz, who now has the unenviable task of staunchly defending Biden and Harris's piss-poor record on things like the economy, race relations, souring international relations, and America's falling status in the world. If he were honest, he would throw Kamala under the bus for her and her senile boss's failures. But he won't—he'll be a loyal soldier. And that will likely be his and Cackling Kamala's downfall.

ADDENDUM: in case my take on Walz seems too rosy, a reader in Minnesota just sent me a link to this article that details some of Walz's failures as governor. Educational. I also just saw the Trump campaign's statement about Walz:

“It’s no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate – Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State. While Walz pretends to support Americans in the Heartland, when the cameras are off, he believes that rural America is ‘mostly cows and rocks’. From proposing his own carbon-free agenda, to suggesting stricter emission standards for gas-powered cars, and embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote, Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide. If Walz won’t tell voters the truth, we will: just like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American’s nightmare.”

I pulled a lot of information about Walz from left-leaning Wikipedia, where the man is billed as a moderate. It seems he may be much more radical than that. This ought to be a fun election; I'm sure JD Vance will be happy to meet and crush Walz on the debate stage.

ADDENDUM 2: the first Styx video above also makes the point that Walz is far left.