Common Dreams: Kamala Harris Picks Progressive Favorite Tim Walz for VP.
The Conversation: Walz pick turns focus on what a VP brings to White House – 3 essential reads.
Will Fox News refer him as a DEI hire? probably not
Nah, they’ll just talk about his old rocks and cows quote, or how he’s making sure children are fed in schools.
s/
No no no he’ll be the puppet master pulling the strings from behind the scenes
/s
Hey, just because he’s a fat, balding white guy from a western state, doesn’t make him Dick Cheney.
western state
Neither Nebraska nor Minnesota have been considered a “Western” state since about 1890. How old are you exactly?
Hey! Show some respect when you address Bartholomew Jackson, the older brother of former worst US president Andrew Jackson!
My apologies.
Aren’t they currently saying this about Harris during the Biden Presidency? Of course while claiming she’s dumb and not qualified.
That would be an even more horrendous accusation if he were Jewish.
I’m actually just checking to see whether he has any Jewish ancestry for RW conspiracy nuts to bring up, just in case.
VP picks are usually diversity hires. They’re chosen specifically for who they are (and who they can appeal to) rather than anything they can actually do. How many times has a presidential candidate from the North east chosen a running mate from the south to appeal to southern voters? It’s basically a tradition. The thing that makes it racist is to only notice when non-white people are involved.
The 12th amendment mandates the vp and president inhabit different states. That is a form of diversity hire, by constitutional requirement
Technically, it doesn’t mandate that. But it does mandate that no elector can vote for both a President and Vice President from their own state, so it would open up the possibility of a split administration. Which is why parties avoid it.
It was amusing to see people float Gavin Newsom as Harris’s VP pick for that reason. With that rule, and the outsized number of Electoral votes that CA has, it’d practically guarantee a Harris/Vance administration if she won.
Yet another severely outdated law we have. Although getting rid of the EC would also take care of that problem.
No, they would do the Dick Cheney thing and say, “Ackshully I live in a different state now.”
Good move from Harris.
Purely strategically, it is an absolutely braindead move to not pick Shapiro. 538 has done a lot of work recently showing the likelihood that whoever wins PA will almost certainly win the election. So why would she decline to select the PA candidate with 60+% approval in that state?
You can bet they have their polling data that says otherwise. Shapiro was a deeply controversial pick who could have killed a lot of the enthusiasm, and he only helps in one individual swing state.
WaltzWalz has broad demographic appeal, so they presumably weighed up both and decided that he was the better bet.
I’ll say the same thing I said in the other post. He’s a solid Mid-Western guy; reasonable and practical. He’s a fine choice and I like him.
Fellow progressives, can I get a HELL YEAH?
Such a great pick!!!
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https://19thnews.org/2024/08/tim-walz-vice-president-running-mate-kamala-harris/
EDIT: I don’t know why my particular lemmy instance is displaying this image so large, but if you’re also affected by the largeness of this image, I deeply apologize.
It’s displaying large because it is large; nearly 720p in video terms. For text, copying & pasting would work better.
Jesus. Is this quote for real? That’s some good shit.
Yep. I was watching the stream when he said this. It was full of some awesome speakers, though I wish more of them had prepared what they were going to say instead of just vamping at the last minute. You can watch the whole thing, or outtakes at the channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WhiteDudesForHarris
Here’s Gov Walz’s clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3NIwzVwgQ8
What is this, an image made for giant ants?
Now I’m sad that we’ll never get a “no, and fuck you” letter from Walz to Virginia because they asked for their traitor rag back again..
I should call up his staffers, as a concerned Minnesotan, and ask if he’s written a statement already and encourage them to ‘leak’ it.
Appears a normal size 2 me 🫡
Aw, I wanted the astronaut.
I wonder if he needed more time with his wife. She’s the former congresswoman who was shot, right? I just thought that that might have factored into it.
I think it was too risky to give up his Senate seat. His seat is too purple, it could easily go to a Republican in a special election.
Tbf, we have enough fucking space cadets in politics. Could use some more down to earth candidates.
He may not have gone to space, but Tim has been an awesome governor here in Minnesota, I look forward to seeing what he brings to the campaign.
Amen friend, all through the early pandemic days and afterwards I’ve been damned proud of what Walz brings to the table. He’s been a good governor – I guess we have to share now.
I wanted the gay dude who makes Fox News his bitch.
Still pretty fucking hyped to vote, either way.
He’s one of my favorites too. If he keeps a clean record, I could see him being a great candidate one day down the road.
There was a story a day or two ago that it had been narrowed to Walz or Shapiro. Between those two, I’m pleasantly surprised.
Same. I’m delighted to be wrong. I thought for sure she was gonna pick Shapiro just to show progressives who’s boss.
Kelly didn’t have enough government experience, only 2 years. I’m not sure he was ever taken as a final contender.
The seat is too valuable to give up an incumbency advantage, particularly so given Kelly’s high approval rating in state.
I knew this intellectually, but in my heart of hearts was hoping for Kelly anyway because having a former astronaut for a president would be freaking awesome. That being said I’m not even a little upset with Walz and I’m 100% here for Walz and Harris both.
Wholeheartedly agree but in the end whatever gets the weird cheeto out of the way works for me!
Politics and old white men, name a better combination
One year older than Harris
Holy fuck that ancient guy is young!
How the fuck do you age like that?
Well he has a job that can be very stressful and in the White Guys For Harris interview, he talked about him and his wife fighting SEVEN YEARS to conceive, so that may well have taken its toll too.
And then there’s the ever present danger of being hit by an errant hockey puck or violated by a moose or an elk inherent to life in Minnesota, of course.
Minnesota winters
It is obviously a cycle we need to break. That said, a campaign has to make choices that lead to victory. Kamala is already a person of color and a woman. If she wins, it would be only the second time to have a non-white President and the first woman.
The fact is that while many us are hungry for change to the old norms, many will be more conservative to change (and I don’t mean in the crazy MAGA way). Having an old white guy on the ticket acts as an anchor for those who are too scared to fully jump into all out change, ensuring that those votes aren’t lost to the other side.
Almost a third of the U.S. population is white and male. In a representative democracy, it’s only reasonable to expect that population to often make up a plurality of all office holders.
Having an old white guy
He was born 4 months before Kamala Harris, if he is “old” then so is she. Are you saying that Kamala is old?
As for a “white guy”, well, the majority of the United States is white and roughly half of it is male. If race and gender matter for representation, as you seem to be claiming, then it’s entirely reasonable for one of the two positions to be a white male while the other is a PoC female.
Old, yes, they are both old. Not elderly, but old. The minimum age for a present is 35. I would very much like to start seeing younger presidents that will be more in touch with what current issues really are and can energize a younger generation of voters.
And yes that was exactly my point on having a white man as an anchor.
Old, yes, they are both old.
I don’t feel that 59/60 is “old”, especially not for people who take care of themselves.
I would very much like to start seeing younger presidents that will be more in touch with what current issues really are…
In general I agree with you but there’s a solid argument that POTUS / VPOTUS should be more experienced and that comes with age.
And yes that was exactly my point on having a white man as an anchor.
I apologize if I misunderstood your comment but you started with “It is obviously a cycle we need to break.” and I disagree with that. There’s no “need” to break a cycle of proportional representation (assuming we can actually get one). There’s nothing inherently noble or superior about having both the POTUS and VPOTUS both being non-white and non-male simultaneously. It should not be prevented but it’s also not some kind of achievement that needs to be unlocked.
Walz was a good choice and not just as an “old white guy anchor” but also because his politics and beliefs are in line with many Americans. He’s an electable person regardless of his skin color and gender.
IMO 59/60 should be about the max for a first term president. That would put them at retirement age if they serve two terms. I think Walz is a great choice to make the whole thing more palatable to progressives like me (who feel that now for a third time in a row we’ve been deprived of a fair primary). I do wish the VP were a little younger than the president to set them up for a run of their own afterwards. Not sure if Walz has any intention of running afterwards, but we’d be right back to a retirement age candidate if Kamala serves two terms.
Personally, I’d like to see more presidents in their 40s or early 50s. That’s plenty of time to get “experience” while still in principle being able to understand the needs of the majority of people. Plus it helps that they’ll still live for a while in the world they shape after their term.
It’s the same argument with jobs. Every boss wants a 25 year old with 30 years experience in their craft.
True that, makes sense.
Dumbasses and comments like the one I’m replying to.
Because? They dared to criticise a choice?
Is it really a criticism though? There’s nothing of merit to it. I could see criticizing the pick based on Walz’s views (though I’d probably argue against that too; Walz has a pretty stellar record).
He’s basically the same age as Harris, so the “old” portion of the criticism is right out the window. What we’re left with is that he’s a white man, which is always what the VP pick was going to be. The unfortunate truth in this country is that a lot of voters are not ready to support a presidential ticket with two women or people of color.
He’s basically the same age as Harris
I honestly had to go look that up because I didn’t believe you at first. She looks good for 59.
I think she was 46 when she went to the VP office. It’s been a rough ride. But the hope of defeating the orange man is making her feel like 35 again.
(She does look really good for 59 though.)
Black don’t crack, whether it’s mixed with Indian or not.
They criticized it in a way that’s not particularly useful to the conversation
It was the issue with Biden; it’s succinct. Responding better would be preferable.
Biden is over 20 years older than Walz.
Walz also isn’t the top of the ticket.
Both are old white men.
That’s not how criticism works. There needs to be something of substance for a critique to have merit.
This was just stereotyping someone based on their looks. You know, the thing we give the other side shit for doing with Harris. It’s not productive, not a good look, and outside of the internet it’s a great way to tell the people around you that you have nothing of value to add to a conversation or discussion.
That’s not criticism, that’s just whining. Absolutely nothing constructive about it.
Your post is whining with nothing constructive. Not all criticism needs to be so constructive, it’s an online forum. But, it’s a criticism of the establishment of old white men, which many of us are tired of.
haha, okay, he’s the guy that came up with the “just weird” label for trrmp and vance, that’s a strong enough starting endorsement for me
