Do you keep in mind Chris Cillizza? He used to write down for CNN however received reduce just a few years in the past. He’s nonetheless lively on Twitter/X and different platforms.
He just lately wrote a thread concerning the Kamala Harris marketing campaign and her selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her operating mate.
Now that the election is over, it appears Cillizza is prepared to look at a number of the more durable questions concerning the 2024 Democratic ticket and the place issues went incorrect.
Have a look beneath:
1/ The election ended 3 weeks in the past. Sufficient time has handed.
We — or I — can now safely pronounce that the Tim Walz VP choose was a dud.
Let me clarify: pic.twitter.com/w2BOkokFAN
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
2/ Earlier than I get into it, let me say two issues.
One: Tim Walz didn’t lose Harris the race (and even near it)
Two: Josh Shapiro wouldn’t have made Harris win — and even win Pennsylvania.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
3/ That mentioned, I simply do not assume the Walz choose made a ton of sense for Harris.
I genuinely assume Walz was the choose as a result of he referred to as Trump/Vance “bizarre” on MSNBC in late July and immediately went viral.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
4/ Keep in mind that Harris had an extremely compressed timeline to decide on a VP. From the day Joe Biden dropped out to the day Harris picked Walz was 16(!) days.
That is it.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
5/ And Walz peaked on the precise proper time. Simply as Harris was trying round for a VP, Walz was the most popular factor in politics.
He had cracked the code on find out how to assault Trump! He was plain spoken! He was a soccer coach!
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
6/ To be clear: I feel Harris genuinely preferred Walz and felt a rapport with him.
And that she and her strategists satisfied themselves that Walz’s “large dad vitality” may assist her attraction to crucial voters within the higher Midwest.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
7/ However, with out “bizarre,” Walz is rarely on her radar. Interval.
And, he by no means actually discovered a 2nd act after “bizarre.”
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
8/ Sure, there was pleasure concerning the ticket after the choose.
However on reflection that appears to me a LOT like pleasure that Biden wasn’t the nominee anymore.
Like, if Harris had picked Shapiro or Gretchen Whitmer would the vitality have been much less?
I do not assume so.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
9/ Walz was mediocre (at greatest) within the VP debate.
His tendency to magnify/misremember particulars about his previous become a nationwide story.
And towards the top of the marketing campaign, he was only a nonentity.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
10/ Add it up and also you get this: Walz was a mediocre choose primarily based, largely, on a viral second.
And with hindsight being 20-20 there have been clearly higher VP picks out there to Harris.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
Tim Walz was a weird VP candidate. It was as apparent to voters as Joe Biden’s dementia, however the media couldn’t admit it.
Isn’t it fascinating how reflective members of the media might be now that the election is over?
