WASHINGTON: He taught in China, knows Mandarin, and is therefore cozy with China. He was arrested for drunk driving. He quit the National Guard just before deployment to Iraq. He was governor of Minnesota during the Minneapolis riots. He’s an uber-liberal west coast wannabe.
MAGA Republicans are bombarding Kamala Harris‘ vice-presidential pick Tim Walz with political dirt within hours of him coming into the national limelight even as the new Democratic ticket is surging ahead in polls, the new energy and momentum evident at a raucous rally in Philadelphia, often referred to as the City of Brotherly Love.
Indeed, brotherly love was what was on display on Tuesday as Democrats quickly closed ranks, with Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, who lost the intra-party race to be Harris’ running mate, joining the event to endorse the Harris-Walz ticket even as Americans began scouring for information about a man who one survey showed 71% of respondents had never heard of.
What they are discovering is a high-relatable everyone’s uncle whose folksy style and openhearted mannerism reportedly charmed Harris so much that she is risking losing Pennsylvania by picking him over Shapiro. Among the more endearing disclosures he reportedly made to Harris when he was being vetted: He had never used a teleprompter before.
Their pairing is now being presented to voters as a “ticket of joy,” in contrast to the dark and dystopian view of America that Donald Trump is projecting if he loses the election. “Thank you…for bringing back the joy,” Walz told Harris in the opening moments of his address, after essaying a brief namaste.
What Walz brings to the table, according to Democratic strategists, is a broader appeal to white rural and suburban voters who remain leery of the first woman of color nominated for the White House race by a major party. Party panjandrums are hoping that even if he swings one or two per cent of white voters in the so-called Blue Wall states that are won or lost narrowly — including neighboring Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — it will pave way for Harris to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win the Presidential race.
Whether that will work in practice is yet to be tested since traditionally, outside of the optics, the vice-presidential choice is inconsequential in drawing votes, something Republican candidate Donald Trump also stated last week in reference to his own running mate. Trump supporters meanwhile are already sowing fears about Walz liberal policies, including generating memes ridiculing him as “Tampon Tim” — because his administration provides free menstrual products to students in Minnesota public schools.
But Walz is unapologetic about his policies that includes codifying abortion rights and free school meals for children in Minnesota saying “one person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.” Questioned about this in one interview, Walz joked about himself, “What a monster! Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn, and women are making their own healthcare decisions!”
At the rally, he pushed back at the Republican stand on abortion rights among other issues, saying, “In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make, even if we wouldn’t make the same choice for ourselves. There’s a golden rule: Mind your own damn business.”
Every bit of Walz mid-western charm was evident at a boisterous rally where he was introduced to a partisan crowd whose own governor was disdained, but which still enjoyed the Minnesotan’s verbal salvos, including a risque shot at his opposite number JD Vance, also from heartland America, asking him to “get off the couch and show up” to debate him.
The salty aside was a reference to the liberal canard on social media about Vance fornicating with a sofa, one of several such lurid memes and themes both sides are generating in an election campaign that is increasingly going below the belt.
Having endured the humiliation Trump was subjected to over his peccadilloes, some of them self-confessed, rightwing tabloids are now scouring the sewers of society gossip to unearth dirt on the Kamala-Walz ticket.
MAGA Republicans are bombarding Kamala Harris‘ vice-presidential pick Tim Walz with political dirt within hours of him coming into the national limelight even as the new Democratic ticket is surging ahead in polls, the new energy and momentum evident at a raucous rally in Philadelphia, often referred to as the City of Brotherly Love.
Indeed, brotherly love was what was on display on Tuesday as Democrats quickly closed ranks, with Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, who lost the intra-party race to be Harris’ running mate, joining the event to endorse the Harris-Walz ticket even as Americans began scouring for information about a man who one survey showed 71% of respondents had never heard of.
What they are discovering is a high-relatable everyone’s uncle whose folksy style and openhearted mannerism reportedly charmed Harris so much that she is risking losing Pennsylvania by picking him over Shapiro. Among the more endearing disclosures he reportedly made to Harris when he was being vetted: He had never used a teleprompter before.
Their pairing is now being presented to voters as a “ticket of joy,” in contrast to the dark and dystopian view of America that Donald Trump is projecting if he loses the election. “Thank you…for bringing back the joy,” Walz told Harris in the opening moments of his address, after essaying a brief namaste.
What Walz brings to the table, according to Democratic strategists, is a broader appeal to white rural and suburban voters who remain leery of the first woman of color nominated for the White House race by a major party. Party panjandrums are hoping that even if he swings one or two per cent of white voters in the so-called Blue Wall states that are won or lost narrowly — including neighboring Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — it will pave way for Harris to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win the Presidential race.
Whether that will work in practice is yet to be tested since traditionally, outside of the optics, the vice-presidential choice is inconsequential in drawing votes, something Republican candidate Donald Trump also stated last week in reference to his own running mate. Trump supporters meanwhile are already sowing fears about Walz liberal policies, including generating memes ridiculing him as “Tampon Tim” — because his administration provides free menstrual products to students in Minnesota public schools.
But Walz is unapologetic about his policies that includes codifying abortion rights and free school meals for children in Minnesota saying “one person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.” Questioned about this in one interview, Walz joked about himself, “What a monster! Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn, and women are making their own healthcare decisions!”
At the rally, he pushed back at the Republican stand on abortion rights among other issues, saying, “In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make, even if we wouldn’t make the same choice for ourselves. There’s a golden rule: Mind your own damn business.”
Every bit of Walz mid-western charm was evident at a boisterous rally where he was introduced to a partisan crowd whose own governor was disdained, but which still enjoyed the Minnesotan’s verbal salvos, including a risque shot at his opposite number JD Vance, also from heartland America, asking him to “get off the couch and show up” to debate him.
The salty aside was a reference to the liberal canard on social media about Vance fornicating with a sofa, one of several such lurid memes and themes both sides are generating in an election campaign that is increasingly going below the belt.
Having endured the humiliation Trump was subjected to over his peccadilloes, some of them self-confessed, rightwing tabloids are now scouring the sewers of society gossip to unearth dirt on the Kamala-Walz ticket.
Source : Times of India
