LMFAO - the Republicans nominated a literal weasel product of Amy Chua and Yale and Peter Thiel and VC nonsense who likes to talk about the "proper role of postmenopausal women" and how Irish are predisposed to criminality with alt right online dead enders like bronze age pervert ...and the Democrats nominated a farmboy turned seargant turned teacher turned governor who goes full history dad
After watching that speech last night, it's clear that Tim Walz is very relatable and genuine—nothing fake, just full authenticity. IMO, he's head and shoulders above Shapiro (I wanted her to choose him). Her first major decision is a great one, unlike Trump's terrible choice of Vance.
I was literally going to post that Walz was a fantastic choice. Not only is he genuine and relatable, he's the real person that Republicans(many of them ivy league) have long pretended to be. They try and and pretend they are rooted, rural, plain talking family first, folksy types. Walz actually is all of those things and he's a progressive Democrat.
For those of us from Minnesota, we've always known this about Walz. I think the part that doesn't get discussed is that there are other politicians in Minnesota who are extremely likeable and relatable. The state legislature is filled with decent and compassionate legislators that embody the sort of salt of the earth values that we all want from our politicians. You frankly will see this across the Upper Midwest. My office in Minneapolis is filled with people who mark their calendars to go hunt at the various openers, drive trucks, grew up in rural areas etc.. And most of them are quite liberal and like Walz, they have all of these attributes that typically code as being Conservative. Same was true for my neighbors, despite my living in one of the wealthiest parts of the Twin Cities.
Also it also shows how much you should listen to the national pundit class - Nate Silver, most of the NYT Editorial Board & Opinion columnists. These guys deem it their job to GIVE VERY IMPORTANT advice on these types of decisions and were still running apopleptic op/ed's right through this week on how they should've picked Shapiro (or, as Aaron Sorkin suggested in the NYT.....Mitt freaking Romney(!?!). Never listen to these morons when they give advice anymore. They simply exist to torment their audience now for rage clicks.
That was a hell of a speech. Walz is what conservatives claim they want their politicians to be, but never actually support: a genuine, salt-of-the-earth person who is relatable, doesn't talk down to them and has their best interests at heart. But, of course, they never support that because the guiding principle of post-Reagan conservatism is to feed their voters cultural bile and say a Democrat made them do it.
Now that Democrats gained their foothold in Michigan (and hopefully they'll do the same in Wisconsin in November), we'll hopefully see a huge new generation of Midwestern politicians that can take a leading role in national politics. The three states in the Upper Midwest really do present a very different type of politicians that is able to burnish progressive credentials without the baggage of being a out of touch coastal elite. And when I say progressive credentials, I dont mean the virtue signaling, performative stuff that you see from typical blue states. The Midwestern Parties tend to be much better at governance so they get to brag about things that really are universally popular (and progressive).
Obama, the clothing critic, has some words to share ... those flannel shirts have been through some sh*t stuff ... and
Got it. And why does he "brag" that nobody made it to Yale? To paint the other side as elitist? As far as I know, JD Vance doesn't come from a lot of money, and made it to Yale on merit. What's wrong about that?
Makes sense. The Democratic Party supports education, and values it. The Republicans have labeled it elitist, tried to belittle the Ivy League, and attempted to demonize teachers. So calling out their hypocrisy and false attempts to play themselves off as folksy straight talkers is a valid move. Again, Walz really is the thing Republicans pretend to be. POLITICS Hearings, subpoenas, crackdowns: Inside House Republicans’ long-term plan to ‘defund’ elite universities https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/18/ivy...ublicans-plan-to-defund-top-universities.html https://www.pewresearch.org/social-...rtisan-divide-in-views-of-higher-education-2/ Republican Bill Would Raise Tax on University Endowments https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/news/republican-bill-would-raise-tax-on-university-endowments/
Anything is possible - especially when you have two people debating each other, when they have never done so at this level or against each other. FWIW Waltz has said that he is a poor debater in the past and has said that he loses focus. However - while Vance is well spoken, he did not really debate that well when he won his Senate seat. Most of these debates come down to likeability - and many times the immediate response from those watching/listening is different than their response later. John F Kennedy is remembered as the victor over Richard Nixon in 1960 in their debate - but at the time, Nixon was viewed as the winner......... Reagan was supposed to not be a good debater, and he always won.... Republicans thought Clinton would be crushed against Bush Sr. and Clinton cleaned his clock....... Obama was supposed to destroy Romney, and Romney at least played him to a push. Walz needs to make sure that he doesn't get too emotional and Vance needs to make sure that he isn't too insincere. Look at Ted Cruz. Well spoken, well educated and smart - but everyone can tell that he is a sniveling coward and is fake and that is what keeps him from being a good debater.
I think this is what drives a lot of the GOP crazy right now about Walz. He's like a a ghost from past, more defensible and moral versions of themselves, more progressive John McCain maybe, or a Bob Dole with energy and a sense of humor. Walz at a state fair is not an awkward photo op. It's where he would literally love to be, getting his corndog on. And parts of the GOP have to look at their not-quite-so-relatable dudes and shake their heads a little: a bankruptcy-prone real estate felon from New York and a weird Ivy-league VC kid who looks like he wears eye-liner and talks about women like he wants to be Amish.
