Chemistry Wins the Day w/Tim Walz as Kamala Harris’ Running Mate – Top 3 Takeaways – August 7th, 2024
- Chemistry. Chemistry is defined as the science that deals with the properties, composition, and structure of substances, the transformations they undergo, and the energy that is released or absorbed during these processes. When it comes to us human types, it’s how the energy released and absorbed when we’re in proximity to one another comes together. And what mattered most to Kamala Harris as she tabbed Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate was reported to be chemistry. And isn’t that interesting. Could it be that the deciding factor for Kamala Harris in choosing a running mate came down to what it’s been like for her to be 2nd mate? If you think it gets awkward when Kamala Harris and Joe Biden go off script what do you think it’s like for the two of them when there is no script and it’s just the two of them in a room with advisors? How do you think the chemistry is in that room between those two? So, in Harris’ desire to pick a white man as a running mate, between Shapiro, Kelly and Walz – it was the latter of those three with whom she had the most chemistry. Clearly it wasn’t about what most people thought she would do and pick Shapiro from Pennsylvania or Kelly from Arizona because of the perceived job they could do in theoretically helping her win those states. As I’ve repeatedly said, the relevance of VP picks in helping to win votes from the bottom of the ticket in presidential elections is overstated. That is evidently something Harris knows too which is why she went with chemistry over geography given that Walz is from a state that’s been the most reliably blue. While Republicans have flirted with the idea of being competitive in Minnesota in recent cycles, the fact of the matter is that they haven’t been. It’s not California, Hawaii or New York that’s been the most reliably blue, no it’s been Minnesota where a Republican hasn’t won since 1972 - when Richard Nixon won it. Minnesota was the one state (it was Democrat presidential candidate Walter Mondale’s home state), that Ronald Reagan didn’t win in his historic reelection win in 1984. Nevertheless, as I predicted in my takeaways yesterday, her running mate is said to be able to help her carry many states. In fact, you didn’t have to even venture into the waters of the New York Times or the AP to find that angle to the story, according to Fox News: Having the plainspoken Walz on the national ticket not only helps Harris in Minnesota, it also benefits the vice president in the two neighboring Midwestern battlegrounds of Wisconsin and Michigan. Say what? That’s like saying undecided Floridians would be influenced to vote differently if Brian Kemp of Georgia, or Kay Ivy of Alabama were on Trump’s ticket because ya know, geography. But no in reality, it was chemistry, not geography that made Tim Waltz Kamala’s white man of choice. And why was there likely so much chemistry?
- Because their policy positions are so alike. Some in news media will try to spin Tim Waltz as something of a moderate. That is certainly something that he is not. In my recent analysis of Kamala Harris’ voting record, I brought you this... There were 120 senators that cast votes during Trump’s four years in office. Of them, only six senators were less likely to vote for President Trump’s position on issues brought before the senate. In other words, if President Trump’s position on the issues is used as the barometer of a “conservative position” Kamala Harris’ voting record in the senate was the 7th most liberal, or in other words, more liberal than the voting record of 94% her collogues. Kamala Harris voted in line with Trump’s position only 16.4% of the time. By way of comparison the average Democrat voted in line with Trump’s position 26% of the time. Now, Tim Waltz also was in congress at the same time. How did his voting record compare? He voted with Trump’s position only 20.5% of the time – making him far more liberal than the average Democrat in Congress and only slightly to the right of Harris’ positions. For comparison’s sake in the House among Democrats with more conservative voting records than Tim Walz were Florida’s favorite political chameleon, Charlie Crist, and good ‘ole Robert Francis O’Rourke, you know the guy who likes to call himself Beto and said he really was running for president to come to your house to take your guns? That guy was 47% more likely to vote with Donald Trump’s positions as president compared to Tim Waltz. As governor of Minnesota...
- He’s signed off on laws to provide taxpayer transgender surgeries for minors and drivers licenses for illegal immigrants (among other policies). It’s likely that type of “chemistry” on policy is why they’re evidently so comfortable together. And btw, this is effectively true with JD Vance too. He was the one Donald Trump Jr. pegged as being the best MAGA running mate in the mix. And chemistry and policy agreement were clearly key for Trump following his fallout with his former non-MAGA VP. As I also mentioned in my analysis of Kamala Harris’ ideology: There’s effectively an 84% degree of difference in policy positions between Trump and Harris. In my research this represents the greatest divide in overall policy positions between the two major party candidates that I have studied. The political gap between Harris and Trump is twice that of the average voter who is a Democrat and a Republican, but that on the issues the country is on balance a bit more closely aligned to the positions of Donald Trump than to those of Kamala Harris. And with the selection of Tim Walz as her running mate – Kamala Harris isn’t indicating a potential moderating of her positions; she’s employing a governor who has delivered them in Minnesota – a preview of what’s to come across this country if she’s given the opportunity. It was just a week ago that the guy who coined the term “weird” for the Godless, soulless and slanderous news media to use to describe JD Vance, said – on a “White Dudes for Harris” call – because remember it’s Vance that’s weird... Don’t ever shy away from our progressive values. One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness. That’s Kamala Harris’ running mate. And it’s that philosophy and the policy behind it that’s at stake in this election.