PMT: Tim Walz

 

As Tim Walz is vetted by the Kamala Harris people as a potential running mate, I not-so-secretly hope they dig up the piece I wrote for CNN about him back in 2020. Here is part of what I wrote then:

 

When Walz talks about the pandemic, he is more of a football coach than a slick politician, and there’s a reason for that. Before entering politics as a member of Congress in 2006, he was a soldier in the Army National Guard, a teacher, and yes, the football coach at Mankato West High School. Top-division high school football in Minnesota is usually dominated by teams from the Minneapolis/St. Paul suburbs, but Walz led a team from Blue Earth County to win its first state championship.

Watching Walz address Minnesotans in daily news conferences, he seems like the coach he was, preparing his team for the big game: he delivers the facts, urges his people on, and walks through potential scenarios. As he leans over a chart, his jacket gapes open and his gaze is intense. An observer likely expects the conference to end with “Let’s do this!” before everyone runs out of the room and into the tunnel to the field.

Walz is a very different politician than some of the others under consideration.  And I would love to see him in a debate with JD Vance...