Walzing with regret
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had a tough week. First, he took a beating from his vice presidential opponent, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio). Then, newspapers started to feel a little weird not talking about all the lies he tells. And then his own party started to doubt the pick.
We already talked about the debate, so let’s get to the newspapers. These guys have done everything they can to call Walz’s mounting lies anything but, but they’re running out of words to describe “lying” without saying that word.
The day before his disastrous debate, Axios predicted Vance would “go after Walz for repeatedly misstating parts of his personal story” and for “his statements that gave the false impression that he and his wife had used” IVF. The day of, CNN released a fact-check following up on the Washington Free Beacon’s report that he was nowhere near China during the Tiananmen Square massacre. The moderators gave him a chance to explain himself. Then they gave him a second chance. He was not able to — and the worry began to spread.
It all comes down to the type of campaign they’ve decided to run: 'Bunker Strategy: The Sequel,' without COVID as cover.
Here was a man the Democrats had hired to check all the boxes the modern Democratic Party whiffs on: A Midwestern man with honorable military experience and an everyman appeal but who can also be vulnerable on matters such as IVF. His repeated lies about his military service and the fertility treatments his family pursued wrecked this storybook so badly that, far from campaign centerpieces, they’ve become campaign weak points, vulnerable to “Republican pouncing.” These days, they rarely even earn a mention in the Harris-Walz campaign.
Democrats warily eyeing Pennsylvania voters can’t be pleased. After all, they passed over the Keystone State’s popular Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, to name Walz. The D.C. rumor is that the campaign worried Shapiro’s Jewish religion would hurt with all those Islamist voters in Michigan.
That decision may have won her a couple of official activist endorsements, but with Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon and Harris and the White House’s steadfast support for the Jewish state, that support may fail to materialize on the ground.
Former President Donald Trump is leading with Arab voters by four points, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Arab-American Institute.
No good in Pennsylvania, no good with Muslim voters. And now the leaks begin.
“Key members of Harris’ circle weren’t aware of some of Walz’s inaccurate statements until they became public, despite the vetting process,” Politico reported Thursday.
“Walz says he ‘speaks like everybody else.’ And it’s not working for the campaign,” read the even cattier headline.
The writing tries to cover for that cattiness, surpassing even Axios in its euphemisms for lying. “Tim Walz has a problem misspeaking,” reads the lead, before going into the “growing number of inaccurate statements — and at times embellishments — about his past.”
When trying to figure out what this is all about, it’s worth remembering that Politico ain’t the New York Times. Its influence on the powerful is real, but that influence reaches from Fairfax all the way to Montgomery County.
No, this is a cover-your-rear leak from campaign staff stuffing “I knew all alongs” into their back pockets for when the blame game begins. And it’s also a finger-pointing leak: directly at former Attorney General Eric Holder, who was charged with vetting the vice presidential candidates. This is all his fault. After all, the blame could never fall on the Hamas-loving staffers who thought Shapiro just was a little too Jewish, right?
When Trump named Vance as his running mate, the junior senator from Ohio experienced negative leaks as well. But those were different. They were clearly from the different power centers of the campaign, jealously undermining the wunderkind. With each of his successes, they faded, and by now they have long been silent. If he’d screwed up Tuesday, you might have heard their return. His advocates, such as Don Jr., were certainly elated at Tuesday’s vindication. The same just doesn’t hold for the Democrats.
The reality is that it all comes down to the type of campaign they’ve decided to run: “Bunker Strategy: The Sequel,” without COVID as cover. It’s positively Orwellian to run a coup on the incumbent and pick someone virtually no one had faith in as the nominee, relying on media partners to paint her as an impressive and historical figure while you wall her and her running mate off in the gardens. Like all crazy plans, if it works they’ll look crazy like a fox. But if not, you’ll see career executions to make Robby Mook blush. So enjoy the leaks. This is just the beginning.
Blaze News:Harris allies are realizing Tim Walz's trouble with the truth is a major liability
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