Tim Walz's Minnesota Vibes

 From The Transom:

Walz has emphasized the elements of his past that seem crafted for an audience on the left; they’ve been rolled out eagerly by the Harris campaign. He has claimed to be the only member of Congress who retired at the highest level of an enlisted Army officer, command sergeant major, after serving twenty-four years in the National Guard — invoking his service as proof of his authority to argue for gun control against the “weapons of war” he carried. The campaign declared Walz to be a wildly successful high school football coach, turning around a lackluster team to win multiple state championships while also spearheading a high-school gay-straight alliance. On the culture-war front, Walz repeatedly claimed that his family was only possible thanks to in vitro fertlization (IVF), a practice he and his fellow Democrats have falsely accused Republicans of wanting to ban.

Walz’s biographical points have significant political resonance in 2024, and they’re key to understanding why Kamala Harris picked him. He so impressed her campaign in performances with friendly interviewers, particularly a guest spot on the Obama-bro podcast Pod Save America where he called J.D. Vance “weird,” that Harris chose him over swing-state options like rising star Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania, or Arizona astronaut-turned-senator Mark Kelly. Walz’s storyline won out, despite the fact that his bright blue state would go Harris anyway, and his being the farthest left of any of the VP candidates.

These stories fit the moment so perfectly that it’s a shame so many of them are false or exaggerated. Walz, repeatedly introduced at rallies and in interviews over the years as being a veteran of combat during the War on Terror, never saw combat or deployed to a war zone — instead, he left the National Guard to run for Congress when his unit was about to deploy to Iraq. His coaching job turns out to have been a volunteer defensive assistant position, which he left after just a few years. And as for IVF, the New York Times reported that the Walz family never used it — instead turning to the much less invasive and ethically less controversial use of artificial insemination.

In each case, Walz’s exaggerations suggest a deeper problem than the typical big fish stories told by incalculable numbers of politicians over the years. The many tall tales told by Joe Biden, for instance, occasionally have an intended political benefit — particularly the numerous résumé-enhancing claims made in his 1988 campaign, which ultimately led to an epic fall from grace. But what political gain is there in his many recitations of confronting a fellow by the name of “Corn Pop” at a Delaware pool? These fall into the category of elderly musings about a hazy, half-remembered past, more like Grampa Abe Simpson’s ramblings. If Walz were just claiming he used to wear an onion in his belt (it was the style at the time), his aggressive fictionizing would have a certain charm. Instead, it reads as a bizarre aspect to a newly nationalized political character, one who tells lies to gain advantage rather than just entertain the bored voter. (Read more.)

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