Minnesota Governor Tim Walz seems to have two public faces: giddily happy/animated, and dour/anxious. He likely wore the latter behind closed doors yesterday.
Walz got out over his skis at a fundraiser held in the home of California Governor Gavin Newsom. The VP-hopeful called for an end to the Electoral College, an institution specified in the US Constitution to give the states equal footing lest a few major population centers come to control the nation's national elections in perpetuity.
Yesterday, Harris' handlers were quick to clarify that Walz's comments do not reflect an official campaign position.
The political immaturity to call for for excising parts of our foundational political document is similar to Democrat calls to pack the Supreme Court. Such wishes are pie-in-the-sky, but worse, they are divisive, heavy-handed, and greedy.
Walz pulls on a thin coat of aw-shucks armor in such moments: "I'm a knucklehead," he's fond of saying. One thinks automatically of bumbling Biden, and that's not the association the Harris campaign wants, not at all.
Add the electoral college gaffe to "misspeaking" about a DUI and fleeing from officers in a 95-mph chase (and subsequent lies about the arrest), military rank and resigning to avoid deployment, visiting China 30 times, and flubbing the dates of his visits (no, Tim, you weren't in China during the Tiananmen Square revolt).
The (assistant) coach's honeymoon is over, and the Harris campaign will have to figure out how to position the "lovable grandpa" figure. Clearly, the answer isn't making promises at big donor events.
