Some pundits who claim to have inside information are predicting that Hillary Clinton will pick Tim Kaine as her running mate. Really? Tim Kaine?
The same Tim Kaine who raked in nearly $200,000 in questionable gifts as governor of Virginia?
I didn’t think anything could stop me from exercising my precious franchise. But a move as dumb as this could do it.
Kaine is seen as the “safe” choice, the don’t-rock-the-boat choice, the middle-of-the-road alternative to a progressive like Elizabeth Warren (at right) or an ethnic breakthrough like Julian Castro (below, right).
What a sad decision that would be.
Hillary has the opportunity to be exciting, bold, inspiring. As the first woman ever nominated for President by a major American political party, she could double the impact with a history making pick for vice president.
Choosing a running mate like Kaine would suck all the electricity out of her campaign and leave millions of progressives with no incentive to vote in November.
Kaine concedes he is boring. And he is worse. He is a stereotypical politician –Â on the take, but safely, within the law, without risk. And that’s one of the things we voters have come to loathe about Washington. The self serving attitude of the people we elect.
Fairly or unfairly, Hillary has enough of that garbage in her baggage already.
If there’s one thing she doesn’t need, it’s a “safe,” old-line pol as her running mate.
And if she wins with Tim Kaine, what then? After Hillary, we get to vote for Kaine as President?
If I manage to live that long, I don’t think I would drag my old bones to the polling station for somebody like Kaine.
I’ve had enough of politics as usual. It’s time, as politicians so often say, for a change.
