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Notes -
https://archive.ph/IHPLW
Tim Walz isn't seeking reelection.
It's been interesting watching the reaction in my various social circles as this plays out. It seems like it's rapidly coalescing into two distinct narratives depending on tribal alliance:
I don't know if either are actually true, but it's an interesting thing to watch develop in real time.
Does the “spotlight” really matter in this case? The Trump Train is going after him regardless of his job. If they can tie him to the ongoing fraud cases, they will.
Likewise for potential lone wolves. He’s going to be in the news whether or not he has a gubernatorial security detail. But I rate that risk pretty darn low, and I expect he does, too.
The real takeaway is that VP candidates don’t usually do much.
Hell, with one big, elderly exception, elected VPs don’t even do that much. You have to go back to Bush Sr. to find someone who actually advanced in their career after they were out of the Executive Branch.
I'm not sure if I buy that. Trump has a terrible track record of actually using the force of law against his political opponents. Even if Walz is guilty of a crime, it seems more likely that his AG will show up and give a speech on Fox News rather than actually indict.
Conditional on Walz being guilty of something damning—something with genuine prison time, I’d expect him to get indicted. I’d expect that whether or not he was sitting governor.
If that condition isn’t met, and the case against Walz is weak or nonexistent, I wouldn’t expect an indictment. Governor or not, the cost/benefit isn’t that strong. I think Comey and James only got their cases railroaded because of personal animosity.
The thing about speechifying on Fox is that it works whether or not the case is strong. Hear name, trigger boo lights. So, again, I expect it to happen regardless of Walz’s position.
I don't get the impression that Walz is personally corrupt. I could well believe he never touched a cent of dirty money.
What he is, is weak. Kamala picked him precisely because he was biddable and wouldn't have opinions of his own to clash with her. I could well see that he just went along with what the advisors and civil servants told him to do. And if that meant "sign this, Governor, no don't worry, ignore the racist MAGA noise about bad things happening, ha ha you know everything is hunky-dory", then sure.
From "107 Days" (and boy, having just finished the book, I meant to finish giving my opinion of it but all this happened) re: her decision about who her running mate would be:
it's amazing how catty and petty she comes across in that passage. I wonder if she realizes that those are both still very prominent Democratic politicians and that she's basically sabotaging them with her book?
I think this book was definitely settling scores, particularly after the post-mortems on just how the fribblin' heck the Dems had screwed the pooch on this election.
Nothing is ever her fault. She is perfect. She can relate to everyone, no matter who, no matter what (it gets funny after a while when she pulls out yet another example of "I, too, was X, Y or Z" - like telling the high school band about how she gave up French horn because too much spit).
Her team were great, and yet. Failure! How could this be? Well plainly she was sabotaged, backstabbed, didn't get enough support, and of course Satan and his demons were all on the side of Trump (she hates Vance, too, which again is very funny to read).
But the fight goes on!
I wasn't sure if she intended to try a second bite at the cherry for 2028 or if she wanted to run for governor of California instead after this book, and I'm still not sure what her intentions are. She seems to be on an extended book tour and maybe trying to work up momentum for some new campaign.
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