And the Minneapolis riots that burned on Tim Walz' watch for two days before he called in the National Guard were just block parties. For some reason, Minnesota's governor has reportedly risen to the short list of potential running mates for Kamala Harris for some unknown reason. Maybe because he sat in on the White Dudes for Kamala call?

Anyway, before we get to Walz' lunacy on socialism, let's take a look at his rise in the Veepstakes bubble. CNN got out in front of it this morning on how Walz wows the progressives with his MAGA mockery, mainly by mouthing the "weird" insult:

Walz is carving out a new – at least to polite liberal politics – line of attack on MAGA movement Republican leaders, whom he has repeatedly described as “strange” while railing against both their political agenda and public manners.

Walz was, again, a swirl of acid and honey during his remark on Monday night to the “White Dudes for Harris” Zoom fundraiser. This time out, though, he also sounded every bit the former high school football coach, first asking supporters to “keep hammering on” Trump and Vance, to “shrink them.”

Then he offered the evening’s headline.

“How often in a hundred days do you get to change the trajectory of the world? How often in a hundred days do you get to do something that’s going to impact generations to come?” Walz asked. “And how often in the world do you make that bastard wake up afterwards and know that a Black woman kicked his a**, sent him on the road?”

Ahem. How does anyone accuse Republicans of being "weird" or "strange" while promoting the administration that appointed Rachel Levine and Sam Brinton to significant posts? Or the candidate who made a point of appearing on "RuPaul's Drag Race" recently? The same candidate that endorsed an activist that argued that drag queens should have access to children for "Drag Queen Story Hour" events, and later accused of sexual assault?

Shangela became the first drag queen to attend an event at the official VP residence after Kamala invited him to headline an event for her.

He was then accused of s*xual ass*lt by at least 5 people.

One teen accuser says the drag queen tried an*lly penetrating him. Others said… pic.twitter.com/UGQLp57DjP

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 22, 2024

The American electorate knows what "weird" is, and it's not a VP candidate that asserts the need to strengthen the traditional-family model, even if one doesn't necessarily agree with the specifics of the policy proposal. Put J.D. Vance against Shangela, Brinton, and Levine, and then ask voters which of these are "weird." The answer won't be Vance.

Speaking of weird, here's how Walz responds to allegations that Harris and the Democrat Party have gone full socialist. He told the All The White Dudes crowd, "Don't ever shy away from our progressive values. One person's socialism is another person's neighborliness."

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a top VP contender for Kamala Harris, says socialism is actually just "neighborliness." pic.twitter.com/xISVQSxIUv

— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) July 30, 2024

As I quipped on Twitter: "Like a Big Brother, State Gov Is There!" With guns. And a keen desire to redistribute your goods based on their own preferences. 

And how "weird" is it that Walz is extolling socialism as "neighborliness" at the very moment that Venezuelans are banding together to pull down Nicolas Maduro's socialist government? Pretty danged weird, I'd say, although defending socialism in any context after a century of unending failure and a body count that could stretch to nine figures is pretty "weird" at any time.

This brings us to the main question: How did Walz end up on the short list in the first place? The response to the Minneapolis riots showed Walz as a thoroughly incompetent executive. Despite lessons learned by other cities in periods of unrest -- notably in 1992's Rodney King riots in Los Angeles -- Walz failed to grasp the need for immediate imposition of order. It took two days of rioting for Walz to do what he should have done in the first hours of the riots and call in the National Guard. And even then, Walz didn't authorize them to take serious action until more than another day passed and the rioters had burnt the Third Precinct police station to the ground and the riots spread into Saint Paul. It took an additional two days before Walz ordered any effective action, by which time Minneapolis had suffered billions of dollars in damage and Saint Paul hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. 

Can you imagine what the ads will look like if Harris adds Walz to the ticket? Voters around the country will get riot images 24/7 and Walz' Minneapolis response painted as the catalyst for what unfolded across the country. The media will complain about "weaponization," natch, but it'll be hard to make that sell if Harris chooses Walz for a running mate. She will effectively marry herself to the "progressive values" on display in Minneapolis' riots and riot responses. Not to mention that Walz' quote on "socialism" will play in every ad, too, where voters will hear it and think it sounds rather "weird."

Kamala Harris' political instincts are poor, but are they that bad? 

Also, the latest episode of The Ed Morrissey Show podcast is now up! Today's show features:

• If this is Kamala Harris' political honeymoon, it's not terribly sweet. 
• Andrew Malcolm and I discuss the largely static polling, especially in the battleground states. 
• We also discuss the mainstream media's desperation for "Kamalot!", and why we may have already seen the end of Peak Kamala. 
• We also wonder who's running the country, talk briefly about Joe Biden's Bogus Journey, and much more!  

The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at  Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!