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Kamala Sticks the Landing
Tim Walz was the right choice for Harris’s Veep. He is a straight, white, Christian man with no presidential ambitions. He doesn’t rile up the “replacement theory” bozos, and he doesn’t threaten the President wannabes, who can now safely support the ticket. He is a very solid citizen whom everyone seems to like, because he is a very solid citizen.
I watched the rally in Philadelphia. It was at Temple University, in the heart of mostly black north Philadelphia. Governor Shapiro gave a stem-winder introduction of the ticket. It was too long for me, but I was home watching on TV. Being there may have been different. He certainly had his mojo working.
Harris/Walz is doing a lot of things right. First, they are not attacking Trump’s voters. That’s the mistake Hillary made. There was no reason to mention the “deplorables.” The voters are a politician’s customers, and the customer is always right. Sometimes, the customers need more information so that their right answer is the politician’s right answer, but that’s the politician’s job. Insulting voters is wrong. The insults may be deserved, but deploying them is always a mistake.
The ticket is rightly focusing its attention on swing states. People complain about how the electoral college creates swing states, as if that’s a bad thing, but I disagree. I think swing states are microcosms. What’s good for the union workers in Michigan is good for the union workers in New Jersey. The latter are perfectly happy to have the candidates go for the union vote wherever they choose. (Nothing is perfect. I wish there was a swing state with high state and local taxes.) The swing states are where the persuadable voters make a difference, so that is where the persuasion must take place. Harris/Walz is going there. Trump is not.
I have two unsolicited tips for the ticket. First, get the slogan squared away. Kamala says “We’re not going back,” and Tim says “We aren’t going back.” Neither works for me. I don’t like contractions in emphatic rhetoric. I suggest “We are not going back!” That way, there’s no confusion over what the “are” gets joined to.
Second, it jangles a bit when Walz refers to his running mate as “Vice President Harris.” The title enforces an image of impotence associated with that job. As the sales courses teach, assume the sale. Harris is rightly talking about “when” she is President, not “if” she is President. Her running mate should refer to her not as the present VP but as the future P. Why not call her “Next President Harris?”
But I’m picking nits. Unless and until some skeletons emerge from Coach Walz’s closet, he is exactly the right man for the job and the party and the country. This ticket has made politics fun again. I hope they can make it last.
