I was prepared to tell Democrats what a brilliant choice they made for vice president.
Where Donald Trump had blundered, choosing a lock-step ideologue in J.D. Vance, Kamala Harris was building beyond her base and shoring up perhaps the most important swing state for her electoral success.
A week ago, all markers pointed to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — a well-respected leader who had first made his mark in the Keystone State as a tough, aggressive attorney general.
He had the right credentials. Georgetown Law. Magna cum laude at the University of Rochester. He is a family man and religious Jew who has run the state as a centrist, proving he can comfortably reach across the aisle.
Shapiro was already taking the fight to Trump
Because of that, he was one of the most popular governors in the country.
Add to that his fight. Good on his feet, telegenic, articulate, Shapiro was already taking it to the Republicans, telling Donald Trump to stop badmouthing the country.
He would have been a great choice for Harris. The spotlight was turning toward him.
And that’s when it started.
The progressive backlash.
Progressives didn't like his Israel stance
The far left was miffed that he had bad-mouthed campus protesters who were carrying Palestinian and Hamas flags and calling for the annihilation of Israel and its people.
If Shapiro was appalled at what happened Oct. 7, it would seem a crucial act of self-preservation. Hamas terrorists slaughtered some 1,200 mostly Israeli Jews that day. They were rewarded almost instantly with antisemitic chants on American college campuses.
The murdering hordes that had spread across Israel were now tunneled under their own civilians in Gaza. If Israel was going to deal with that problem, they would have to kill Palestinian civilians in the process.
Undaunted, Israel attacked. Civilians died along with Hamas terrorists. In the pretzel-logic of some American progressives, that meant Israel was to blame.
Later, they would blame Shapiro.
Shapiro's only difference is he's Jewish
Some 50 progressive leaders penned a screed demanding Harris choose someone other than him. A website and social-media feed called “No Genocide Josh” emerged.
And that was odd, noted the Jerusalem Post.
All of the people on Harris’ short list were essentially pro-Israel — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
Only one had a particular problem, the newspaper noted.
Shapiro.
He’s Jewish.
Surely, the Democrats wouldn’t balk at that. Even the new Democrats who are wobbly at best defending our most important Middle East ally are not going to eliminate a candidate based on faith.
Well, here was the test.
And Kamala Harris failed.
Kamala Harris chose a lock-step VP instead
Instead, she chose the reliably progressive, lock-step Democrat whose biggest splash on the American scene to date was the day he hunkered down.
That’s how I remember Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. And I’m sure millions of Americans do as well.
When his state’s biggest city was on fire, Tim Walz wilted.
Two days after Minneapolis Police killed George Floyd, and protesters started burning down buildings and looting stores, police and city officials were overwhelmed.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a fellow Democrat, asked Gov. Walz to deploy the National Guard.
Nothing.
Tim Walz froze while Minneapolis burned
Hours later, the Minneapolis Police Chief submitted a written request for troops, The New York Times reported.
Crickets.
Walz sat on his hands another 12 hours. Not until the next afternoon did he sign an executive order granting the Guard permission to protect Minneapolis.
“It was obvious to me that he froze under pressure, under a calamity, as people’s properties were being burned down,” Minnesota state Sen. Warren Limmer, a Republican, told The Times.
And how did Walz answer his critics?
“I simply believe that we try to do the best we can,” he said.
Republican attack ads write themselves
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the next vice-presidential candidate of the Democratic Party.
Tim Walz.
A real tiger.
The Republican ads can write themselves.
Tim Walz is the one:To help Harris fight fire with fire
With flaming buildings in background, narrator intones:
“It was the summer of 2020. Rioters set fire to the city of Minneapolis. Police were swamped; the mayor dazed. But not to fear, the Dynamic Duo would soon be there. Tim Walz flexed his muscles and held back the Minnesota National Guard. Kamala Harris swooped in and bailed out the rioters. Order restored.”
Fade to aerial of smoldering Minneapolis Police precinct building. Cut.
Oops, JD Vance is already making that attack
After I had written the above, I went to National Review and read that Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance had already painted that picture on Tuesday afternoon:
“They make an interesting tag team because Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020, and the few that got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail,” Vance told reporters.
Some mainstream news organizations will try to backfill for Harris on this count, but her original tweet is still up urging people to chip in and bail out the people who broke the law in Minneapolis.
When is the now pro-Palestinian American left going to figure out that the Jews are not mere bystanders in the Democratic Party?
Shapiro would've helped Harris in the long run
They are a people whose creativity and raw energy, whose enormous intellectual and financial achievements make them tenacious allies in any political fight.
They are the ballast in a party that is frequently sidetracked by voyages of pure fantasy — earth-loving do-goodism unhinged from a real world that is often nasty and self-interested.
I was prepared to tell Republicans that in the short run Josh Shapiro would be trouble for the Republican Party, but in the long-term he would be healthy for America.
Now Kamala Harris has chosen Tim Walz to be her running mate.
And Republicans are celebrating.
It turns out Donald Trump isn’t the only politician who steps on rakes.
Phil Boas is an editorial columnist with The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.
