by Michael
What in the world was Kamala Harris thinking? There is a reason why the Trump campaign is so giddy right now. Kamala Harris could have had Josh Shapiro, but instead she picked Tim Walz. When I wrote that “Kamala Harris has a tendency to really mess things up”, I was not exaggerating one bit. This election is going to be decided by the swing states, and the most critical swing state by far is Pennsylvania. Whoever wins Pennsylvania is almost certainly going to win the presidency. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has a 61 percent favorability rating in his state, and so he was seemingly the obvious pick. The following comes from CNN…
Pennsylvania, on the other hand, is almost certainly a must-win state for Harris if she wants to be president. In fact, it is probably the most important swing state this cycle, and the polling there has been very tight.
Shapiro currently holds a 61% favorable rating in Pennsylvania and outperformed Biden’s 2020 baseline by 14 points in 2022.
Whether that would have been enough to propel a Harris-Shapiro ticket in Pennsylvania this fall is a question mark, though political science literature suggests it very well could have.
If the loss of Pennsylvania ends up costing the Democrats the White House, many on the left will be absolutely furious with Kamala Harris for making such a bone-headed choice.
When Donald Trump learned that Harris had picked Walz, he issued a two word response…
Trump took to Truth Social to deliver a two-word response to Harris’ choice of running mate.
“THANK YOU!” Trump wrote in all capital letters.
This was an enormous gift to the Trump campaign.
So why didn’t Harris pick Shapiro?
Well, the truth is that many on the left were deeply concerned that he is Jewish and that he has a history of being strongly pro-Israel…
Shapiro has been a staunch supporter of Israel for decades, dating back to his high school and college days when he wrote for a student newspaper at the University of Rochester. One opinion piece, titled “Peace Not Possible”, resurfaced in a newspaper last month.
“Palestinians will not coexist peacefully,” Shapiro wrote. “They do not have the capabilities to establish their own homeland and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States. They are too battle-minded to be able to establish a peaceful homeland of their own.”
In that article, Shapiro also said he had previously served as a volunteer in the Israeli army.
There was apparently concern that having Shapiro on the ticket could cost Harris the state of Michigan if too many Muslims stayed home and didn’t vote.
With Walz on the ticket, that isn’t likely to be an issue.
But if Harris doesn’t win Pennsylvania there is probably no path to victory for her.
Of course there is no going back now.
Harris has made her choice, and everyone is going to have to live with it.
The following are 7 things that you should know about Tim Walz…
#1 In 2020, Walz presided over the BLM riots that resulted in large portions of Minneapolis being burned to the ground…
Walz is a radical leftist who presided over the George Floyd riots in 2020 and ignored cries from across the state. Instead, he stated that “a society that does not put equity and inclusion first will come to this result.”
He even mocked Minnesota national guardsmen as a bunch of ’19-year-old cooks” when asked why he rejected Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s request to send them to the city.
#2 Minnesota became a “sanctuary state” under Walz, and he has made sure that migrants are eligible for all sorts of free goodies…
As governor, Walz also has signed several pieces of legislation to provide state-funded health care, driver’s licenses and free college tuition to illegal migrants.
“Ensuring drivers in our state are licensed and carry insurance makes the roads safer for all Minnesotans,” Walz said in 2023 after signing the bill to allow thousands of illegal migrants in his state with driver’s licenses.
#3 Minnesota also became a “trans refuge” state under Walz…
Kamala Haris’ progressive running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, helped to transform Minnesota into a “trans refuge” state — signing legislation to protect gender-affirming care and to provide tampons in boys’ bathrooms at schools.
Walz, 60, a former high school teacher, signed the so-called “Trans Refuge” bill into law in April 2023, prohibiting the enforcement of out-of-state subpoenas, arrest warrants and extradition requests for people who travel to the North Star State from other states for gender-affirming care.
#4 The bill that Walz signed into law in April 2023 also allows Minnesota authorities to take children from any parents that try to prevent their kids from getting sex change surgeries…
Vice President Kamala Harris’ newly announced running mate — Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — signed a bill in April of 2023 allowing the state to make custody determinations if a child is denied access to sex-change procedures.
The “Trans Refuge Bill” allows for “temporary emergency jurisdiction” if a parent denies their child sex-change procedures, according to the bill’s text. The bill defines the interventions, which include sex-changes, hormone replacement and cosmetic surgeries, as “medically necessary” so long as it “respects the gender identity of the patient, as experienced and defined” by the child.
#5 It is being alleged that Walz quit the National Guard after he learned that his unit would be deployed to Iraq…
Veterans have accused Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of “embellishing” his military career and abandoning his National Guard battalion, highlighting that the now-vice presidential pick for the Democrats never served in combat and retired from service ahead of his unit’s 2005 deployment to Iraq.
In a letter posted to Facebook in 2018 as he first ran for governor, retired Command Sergeants Major Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr said Walz retired from his 24-year tenure in the National Guard after learning that his battalion would be deployed to Iraq, despite allegedly assuring his fellow troops he would join them.
#6 Many people don’t realize this, but Walz actually considers himself to be a Lutheran…
More specifically, he sometimes describes himself as a “Minnesota Lutheran.” “Because we’re good Minnesota Lutherans, we have a rule: if you do something good and talk about it, it no longer counts,” Walz joked during a speech last spring. “So what you have to do is to get someone else to talk about you.”
#7 It turns out that Walz has a very long history of being close to China…
Walz, 60, went to China straight after college through a program set up by Harvard University and taught in Guangdong province, shortly after the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing in 1989.
He would later honeymoon in China with his wife Gwen, bringing a group of 60 young people with them
In the 1990s the couple set up a business which took high school students to China every summer for around a decade.
Walz has been to China dozens of times, including on trade missions, and has called his experiences there ‘amazing’.
The Harris/Walz ticket is the most liberal presidential ticket that we have ever seen.
From a tactical point of view, I don’t think that this is a smart move by the Democrats.
But we shall see what happens.
This is definitely going to be a close election, and whichever side loses is going to be extremely upset.
In particular, if Trump wins I think that we will see tremendous civil unrest all over this country.
And now that Harris has picked Walz, I think that a Trump victory is even more likely.
But a lot could still change over the next few months, and I have a feeling that several more major surprises are still to come.