Like so many of my election analyses, I have been contradicted by events, but this time it occurred faster than usual.
I had suggested that Roy Cooper, the governor of North Carolina, would be a good choice to be Kamala Harris’s running mate. Five days later, he has announced that he was pulling out of the running.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who grew close to Kamala Harris when they both served as their states’ attorney general, has withdrawn from contention to become her vice presidential nominee.
Cooper’s exit from the veepstakes was confirmed by three people briefed on the development and granted anonymity to discuss it. Two Democrats close to Cooper cited three factors: His desire to potentially run for Senate, his age and fears that North Carolina’s divisive Republican lieutenant governor would take over each time Cooper traveled out of state.
The last factor was something I had not considered but I can well understand understand why the prospect is viewed with alarm.. The lieutenant governor Mark Robinson is utterly hateful and bonkers, someone who makes even serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSACFT), who has endorsed him, and JD Vance almost look sane by comparison.
Robinson has promoted various far-right conspiracy theories, engaged in Holocaust denial, denied sexual assault allegations against various prominent figures, and has often made inflammatory anti-LGBT, antisemitic, racist, anti-atheist, and Islamophobic statements.
The latest scandal is that he and his family were living high off taxpayer money funneled through a non-profit they started. He should not be in charge of anything.
The sudden rising star in the veep stakes is Minnesota governor Tim Walz (age 60) who bring some of the same qualities that Cooper had and who has shown himself willing to indulge in aggressive bare-knuckle politics. He is being credited with quickly leaning into the label ‘weird’ to describe the GOP ticket.
Although Harris outperforms President Joe Biden across key voting blocs, Democrats running in rural, competitive districts this fall fear the former California senator and attorney general is poised to do even worse there than the president — especially in battleground states in the upper Midwest. The 60-year-old Walz, who served 12 years in Congress representing a red, mostly rural southern Minnesota district, could bring the “guy you would meet at a backyard barbecue in the Midwest” vibes to the ticket, they argue, which could help hold off another Democratic free fall in rural regions.
…In a recent CNN appearance, Walz swatted down criticism of the ambitious progressive agenda he has enacted in Minnesota, including tuition-free college and universal school meals.
“What a monster! Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn and women are making their own healthcare decisions,” Walz said, feigning outrage in response to a charge that he’s too far-left for the ticket.
“He helps quell some of the fears of the ‘San Francisco liberal’ that Republicans have by showing that the middle of the country believes that it’s not a radical San Francisco idea to believe in affordable health care,” said Travis Helwig, who leads Won’t PAC Down, a Gen Z-focused super PAC.
The group isn’t endorsing any vice presidential candidates, but it did just cut a new digital ad that leans into Walz’s favorite, no-frills phrase that he’s deployed to sum up Trump and GOP policy positions as just being “weird.” Helwig noted they filmed the ad before Walz’s comments caught fire, but they wouldn’t have released it as the group’s first ad “if ‘weird’ wasn’t in the zeitgeist right now,” he said.
He would be a good choice. Now that I have said it, he will probably withdraw soon.
I think he would be a good choice too, but as a Walz voter and MN resident I might be biased. There are multiple sources floating around the web that show him being interviewed on major media, and giving a local speech last week. ( He wears a tshirt and camouflage baseball cap.) He is a very likable, upbeat, down to earth, just regular folks type of person, and his background as a Teacher is evident in the way he communicates. Concise, clear, while also dismissing the weirdo’s without hate or sloganeering.
i voted for Walz.
chuckled when i heard this quote of his on Minnesota Public Radio today:
“And how often in the world do you make that bastard wake up afterwards and know that a Black woman kicked his ass and sent him on the road?”
Walz is a former school teacher. Just the person to know how to handle Republican rhetoric.
What a weird world we live in. A purple state like North Carolina seems to give leeway to insane politicians like Mark Robinson because “that’s just republicans for ya” while decent and intelligent Democratic politicians are ignored or even demonized for minor things. I don’t like the way many voters excuse Republicans. Most voters don’t agree with most GOP policies or politicians. Yet Republicans control more states than Democrats, Republicans can and do make more gains in purple and even blue states compared to Dems. It’s very frustrating that Dems are being told to be “moderate” and “anti-woke” by so many pundits and media outlets to win elections while ignoring the insanity of the GOP (and that they have pushed towards extremism and authoritarianism) who have yet to see much pushback from voters and instead continue to control most states and local governments. Maybe the Dems should become more outspoken, it seems it can only benefit them.
Weird: “curious” or “peculiar”. Aww, isn’t that quaint. Jeepers, will ya look at all them weirdos. Thanks, Wally Cleaver.
Why not “fascist”? Or “authoritarians”? Or is the truth too offensive?
Dems always screw up in the end so Harris will probably pick the guy from Pennsylvania and lose the muslim voters, and thus the election.
.
OT “Trump Hosted A Party With Epstein And 28 Girls”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=hEjB5H-MVBw
-WTF, this information has been around for five years and no one has drawn the attention to it? Thank you, media.
I don’t understand how you get a Democratic Governor and a Republican Lieutenant Governor in the first place, but North Carolina is one of those backward southern states that typify white Christian nationalism.
In Minnesota, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor run as a ticket, just like the federal elections for President and Vice President.
Our L.G. is Peggy Flanagan, who is a Member of the White Earth Band, an accomplished community organizer and activist for healthy communities, and the first indigenous woman elected to either office. Our little political group which formed in the wake of the 2016 election catastrophe did a pretty good job of achieving our goal of electing more women, and especially women of color to public offices.
Jen Psaki interview with Tim Walz from a few days ago.
He also calls them the He-man woman haters club. Avoiding labels like fascist or authoritarian is a clever way to frame the issue without engaging in partisanship.
It’s a masterclass in the best way to deal with the narcissistic bullies. Do not engage with their argument, just gently laugh at them while explaining why most people who aren’t Silicon Valley tech-bros think their ideas about freedom are simply weird.
Apparently, he and his wife used IVF to conceive their two children, so he is a huge fan of all people having access to full modern medical care.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dKYZKGcLLIM&pp=ygULTWVpZGFzIHdhbHo%3D
Dennis K, how about ‘deplorables’?
(Worked pretty well last time it was tried, no?)
Tethys: It’s kinda the same in Virginia, where Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General are elected offices, and candidates for same are all independent of each other. So offhand, I’m guessing NC Democrats nominated a strong candidate for governor and a much weaker one for lieutenant governor, and that’s how Cooper got stuck with such a crap potential successor.
Yeah, Missouri is like that too. Only MAGAts will win in the general election, though; so it rarely matters.
@ 9 Morales
History proved her right.
https://www.cato.org/commentary/yes-it-was-attempted-coup
(sonofroj we’ll take it as read Hilary Clinton is the worst human to ever walk the face of the Earth -- you don’t have to remind us yet again of your totally non-misogynist opinion.)
I wondered about Cooper’s age (68). I imagine very few people want to be VPOTUS for its own sake (as LBJ said, it’s not worth a bucket of warm piss*), but as a stepping stone to the presidency. If Harris wins and serves two terms, he’d be 76 when running for that. If she wins but loses in 2028, he’d have wasted 4 years. If she loses, he’d have wasted 3 months.
*Often euphemised to “spit”.
@9, John Morales, there’s a saying in the south, “The hit dog hollers”. It means if you present someone with a truth and it hurts their ego (probably ESPECIALLY because it’s true about them), they’ll start yelling and carrying on about it. And sure enough, the people described by that adjective began to scream and carry on.