They Call Me Tim

So Hillary Clinton did as I predicted, and went with Tim Kaine, Senator from Virginia, as her running mate. It's a very safe choice, as there seems to be little downside with Kaine, although the Fox News/Trump Campaign is trying hard. He's affable, competent, and fairly liberal, though not too liberal. He's never lost an election. He speaks Spanish. Perhaps most importantly, he's a senator from a state with a Democratic governor, which means that he will be replaced by a Democrat (which was not true with Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, or Sherrod Brown).

It seems the people most upset by the Kaine choice is the far left, or the Bernie Bros, who wanted Warren or Brown. But, see above, and it can be almost certain that the left will come to Clinton eventually, closer every time Donald Trump opens his mouth, and she would do better to try to woo white men. And I fail to see Kaine's wicked conservatism. He is for the Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement, but I don't think most voters even understand it, let alone if they're for it or against it. He has a 100 rating from Planned Parenthood and the Abortion Rights League (although he is personally against abortion, being Catholic, but believes in the rule of law and is fully behind Roe v. Wade) and has a 0 rating from the National Rifle Association. He worked as a civil rights attorney and as a missionary in Honduras. He seems like a real do-gooder.

I would have loved to see Warren, but besides losing her seat in the Senate to a Republican, she's probably more effective as a senator (and may challenge presumptive Minority (or Majority) leader Chuck Schumer for leadership. Tom Vilsack, who is thought to have been the number two choice, is probably more boring than Kaine, and would have been helpful in Iowa, and wouldn't have caused a Senate problem, so he would have also been a good choice,but Kaine has been fully vetted (he was on Obama's shortlist eight years ago).

My special favorite, who probably wasn't on anyone's list, was Al Franken, who would satisfy the progressives and is a damn good senator. Of course he was also a professional comedian, which carries its own baggage, but would have really made for an exciting choice. But conventional wisdom is that Clinton didn't want an exciting choice. She wants to play defense and let Trump destroy himself as much as possible. Also, there's plenty of excitement in that she may be the first woman president of the U.S.A. Some idiot on CNN last night said this campaign had no excitement, but he's not a woman. We're on the cusp of major history, and that tells me that her advertising should play that woman card hard.