“Mr Nice Guy”, Tim Walz, showed up at the vice-presidential debate in New York and flubbed it. Perhaps he was over-prepared. Or underprepared. Or just too darned “Minnesota nice”, as they say in his home state. Folks there have a reputation for being congenitally kind and polite. Kamala Harris’s running mate could have pummelled JD Vance for being a mean, small-minded, misogynistic flip-flopper whose sole guiding principle was to suck up to Donald Trump. Instead, he came to praise rather than to bury his opponent.
Vance couldn’t believe his luck. The Republican vice-presidential nominee was only too pleased to play the game that he and the governor were commonsensical, bipartisan people. Walz and Vance kept saying how much they “actually” agreed with each other on housing, jobs and support for families. It was sweet, in a way, to see a Democrat and a Republican spar lightly with each other, harking back to a more gentle era B.T. – Before Trump. But, “C’mon man, give me a break!” Joe Biden might have roared, if he were still awake. There is too much at stake.
