From the cheering crowd in Pennsylvania, when it was announced, the choice was welcome and adds another layer of energy into the Harris campaign, and also increased fund raising to the tune of #36 million.
Much has been said about his “everyman” character and it does ring true, married, with a near adult child, one whose financial disclosures reveal an upper middle class income, bereft of stock, and a former high school teacher and athletic coach, and close in age to the vice president, and as has been reported that she feels a strong chemistry with.
The role of the vice president in the United States is to provide unqualified support for the president, and to preside over the Senate, and when needed be the tie breaker. It is also a role that Harris knows well, and has grown dramatically since she was first nominated nearly four years ago.
While ticket balancing has been the principal reason, let’s remember what Texan Lyndon Johnson did for John Kennedy and the state’s mother load of electoral votes, and whose later retention prompted that fateful trip to Dallas.
In Harris’ case capturing votes in swing states such as nearby Wisconsin, Michigan and other so called “rust belt” states will be crucial to winning the White House, and Walz is expected to be relatable to voters in those states.
The decision was met with delight by the Trump campaign who quickly branded Walz as another liberal intent on ruining the country. Supporters made much of his role in providing free feminine hygiene products in high schools, and decided to label him “Tampon Tim,” but whose actions many praised to support young women; and, he has been a stalwart supporter of LGBT rights and helped found a gay and straight student alliance in the high school where he taught, another move that the radical right will soon pan as being “woke”.
Notably Walz also supported affordable housing, health care, paid leave and affordable child care, all progressive stances aligned with that of Hariis and the DNC.
The Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance has been tagging the Harris campaign on their travels, and in one amazing stunt, accompanied by his secret service agents, approached Air Force Two, the vice presidential plane, in direct violation of security protocols, and said, “I just wanted to check out my future plane.”
While this has been widely panned as schoolboy braggadocio, Vance has gone after Walz’s 24 year military career saying that he abandoned his Army National Guard Troops before they were deployed to Iraq, and that he has said was cowardly; when, in fact, Walz had no definitive notice that he would go to Iraq, and was carefully considering running for Congress, and worried that could he do both, and not be in violation of the Hatch Act, which limits political speech on the part of federal employees.
Critics point out that while Vance did serve in the Marines in Iraq, but as a “desk jockey” for communications and never saw combat. In his book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” he wrote, “I was lucky to escape any real fighting.”
Another claim was that Walz in support of limiting assault weapons to the military, said that he did not believe they should be what he “carried in war,” and while he did carry them in training modules and instruction, he did not carry them in war, but misspeaking often happens in unscripted public appearances, which the Harris campaign has amended, and Walz referred to himself as a retired command sergeant major in his run for Congress and governor.
What’s in a title, say some, and one headlining statement was this: “This is a lie and stolen valor,” said Ashley Hayek, chief engagement officer, America First Policy Institute, an organization founded in 2021 to promote former U.S. President Donald Trump's public policy agenda,” according to Wikipedia quoting an Axios article.
The kerfuffle centered on this: when Walz decided to retire to devote full attention to running for Congress, he did so before taking the training necessary to receive that title; and the Harris campaign has now clarified, Walz’s title upon retirement was “Command Sergeant Major.
There is irony in this discussion of military titles and combatant roles since Trump between 1964 and 1972 received four student deferments and one medical disqualification, for bone spurs on one or both heels, and it has been reported that a Queens podiatrist did this at the request of his father Fred.
Meanwhile Trump has criticized Haris for not holding press conferences, or interviews, and claiming that she does not have the intellect for it, and at a recent press meeting of his own rambled on; worrying those gathered that he was aging fast, just as obviously as he said President Biden did..
In what is now a continued litany of lies, he claimed, in that press conference, that he was on a helicopter ride, with former Speaker of the California State Assembly Willie Brown (who previously dated Harris) and they were forced to make an emergency landing, and all that Brown discussed was Kamala; but, in fact, that ride never occurred and was with the former Gov. Jerry Brown, in 2018, as he and Trump toured California to survey wildfires.
Brown with characteristic candor told the San Francisco Chronicle as reported by CBS News: "Hell, no," Brown said. "I wouldn't say anything bad about any woman to him." Brown also told the Chronicle he hasn't spoken with Harris in three or four years.”
“California Gov. Gavin Newsom was also on the aircraft. A spokesperson for Newsom, Izzy Gardon, said Friday there was no problem with the flight, no emergency landing and no conversation about Harris,” added the report.
What is becoming increasingly obvious to political observers, the media, and others, is that Trump and his campaign are becoming desperate, increasingly so, over his standing in the polls as Harris has cut his once sustained lead in half.
The DNC has sent recent emails to supporters showing that she is taking the lead in swing states, Arizona: Harris 49%and Trump 47%, tied in Georgia, Nevada: Harris 47% to Trump 45%, and close to Trump at 46% to Trump % at 48, and also in Pennsylvania she is at 46% to Trump at 50%.
For Trump, and Vance, as the “honeymoon” for Harris has extended is that her numbers may provoke them to even more attacks, lies, and shenanigans as we get closer to the November election date.
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