Just for a moment, let's set aside all the verified Stolen Valor ugliness piling up by the second on Kamala Harris's inexplicably bad pick for running mate.

As more Tim Walz facts float out...well, no. It's a cesspool of poopy news right now, akin to the Seine after a rainstorm when triathletes have a toe in the water - that bad.

If I were the last rational individual in the Harris campaign, I know I'd be dreading every next revelation on X, and I'd only be hearing one thing in my head as I spruced up my resume.

Part of Cacklin' Kamala's calculation around the Walz tap, besides his now not-so-obvious military cred, was his "folksy" charm (repeatedly mentioned any time an MSM reporter or anchor talks about him) and the ardent wish that his small-town appeal would help the unlikable and largely unrelatable Harris with the rural voters who have been bleeding away from the Democratic Party.

I mean, he's got pictures in blaze orange, camouflage, and holding dead things he killed himself with a shotgun. The rural yokels should be able to get behind this regular guy.

Tim Walz Hunts sis, why are you bold face lyin to people? https://t.co/Yy1HjUaNZc pic.twitter.com/oKnUPNpQhE

— 🅽🅸🅲🅾 (@Mrnotthatfamous) August 7, 2024

I mean, he's so next-door-America; even uber-progressives struggle to list all the "normal" about Walz. Embrace the normie!

HE DOES BUTTER CARVINGS FOR GOD'S SAKE, PEOPLE

MSNBC’s @mollyjongfast on @Tim_Walz: “He ice fishes, he’s a hunter. He does butter carving … he’s a really a sort of — you know, he — he is a rural person. And, you know, he went to college on the GI Bill. He was the highest ranking enlisted man. You know, this is a person who… pic.twitter.com/Rk2Xi9FfhX

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 7, 2024

This is your guy, farm persons!

The huge problem the Harris campaign has, for all assurances that Tim Walz is a cuddly rural bear of "aw, shucks" proportions who will bring flyover country voters back into the fold, is that none of those assumptions are born out by the voting data. Not in Walz's home state or anecdotally speaking to MN citizens.

Unlike JD Vance or Pennsylvania's Josh Shapiro, who have both forged strong links with rural and middle-class citizens in their states (Salena Zito had a great piece on Vance last month), the voters in Minnesota's back country don't really care much for Tim Walz, shotgun and camouflage or no. How the fact that he gets his clock cleaned in MN rural counties during elections escaped the scrutiny of Kamala's vetting operation (that might be a double negative there) defies logic as far as choosing him for his appeal to those same voters.

Outside of urban area appeal? He hasn't got any.

All of the “Walz is the guy who will bring back rural voters” and he “reads moderate” are wish-casting. There’s no data to support it. Just the opposite. Don’t take my word for it. Steve Kornacki lays it out.

pic.twitter.com/TKGUQ8cUjW

— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) August 8, 2024

When talk turns to Walz on the ground in the rest of the state, it's not a friendly conversation. Now, could it be that he's irritated the more pastoral residents, who are usually a good deal more patriotic than their urban counterparts, with his admittedly woke takes on governance?

He has certainly been provocative.

3 months ago, Minnesota Gov Tim Walz replaced their state flag with a new flag resembling a Somali regional flag.

This is Kamala's VP pick. pic.twitter.com/t7PfqPTl5j

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 6, 2024

Someone who loved their old state flag's history might well take offense.

But there's a deeper resentment of Walz built up out in the countryside, along with an air of dismissal.

Those people, who at one time did think he might work out okay, now can't be bothered with him and his bs.

After Vice President Kamala Harris announced Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, the political world speculated that his rural background could help her win over rural America.

But election maps and attendees at Farmfest in southwest Minnesota hint at a different outcome.

Hours after the announcement, the reaction among attendees at the annual gathering was less than thrilled.

Retired farm worker Arnold Gerdes of Luverne called the announcement a “joke.”

“We don’t need anybody like him in there,” he said.

Fiercely independent folks who make a living off the land, who go to work and work hard every day, also have no time for a mandate master, be it masks, EVs, whatever.

They take sincere offense at Walz's hypocritical "mind your own business" line when he is the living, breathing example of the ultimate fascist government busybody with their nose in everyone's beeswax.

Rural folks also revere their law enforcement, who are often family members, neighbors, and friends in these smaller communities. They don't take kindly to those who enable criminal elements. 

Governor Walz is not a welcome figure in many of these communities in his own state.

...Rural Minnesota is not a monolith, of course, and Walz has his supporters as well. But his visits to rural Minnesota carry the feel of walking into the teeth of the dragon. Many rural residents chafed at his orders during the pandemic in 2020 that required masks, closed nonessential businesses in those early weeks, and banned evictions for nonpayment of rent.

In 2021, when he visited Douglas County to witness the impact of the drought on a local farm, some of the farmer’s own family stayed away, and other family members told me they didn’t wish to meet him. When a Pope County sheriff’s deputy was shot and killed in 2023, Walz didn’t attend the funeral at the family’s request.

He should be so horribly ashamed. What a disgrace to be so little respected that you cannot pay your respects.

Farmers, especially, are not fans of his energy mandates.

...“How am I going to start up an EV in the winter to go feed my cattle?” he said. “It burns my butt, following this California mandate.”

Then, in the middle of her closing paragraphs, the author makes a statement...

...Why the Democratic brand has turned toxic in rural Minnesota, once a Democratic stronghold, is a puzzle with many pieces.

...which makes you wonder if a single soul advising the Harris campaign had any clue at all about the state of affairs in MN before proposing Walz as the face of rural outreach.

Dems are "toxic" but Harris taps this clown? Da furk?

To emphasize how disconnected from reality this entire campaign is, my little agriculture email today had the absolute most amazing quote from a presidential campaign's "appeals to rural voters" VP candidate ever.

— Walz’s selection is seen as a strategic move to appeal to rural voters and progressives, given his track record of progressive policy achievements and his Midwestern charm.
Perspective: His appeal to rural voters could be challenged. Sources say once he became governor, Walz was more attuned to city and suburban voters, not the rural sector, telling one contact that “I don’t need the Ag vote any longer.”

HOLY SMOKING GUN

Think about it. The Democratic Vice Presidential candidate has reportedly said:

"I DON'T NEED THE AG VOTE ANY LONGER."

And the Farm Journal thought it important enough to send it out in their email under "...Can He Help Boost the Rural Vote?"

Do you know how many agricultural industry eyes all across the country just potentially read the same thing I did this morning?  

Oh, there's only the potential for half a million pairs of eyeballs and that's only if none of them share it...kinda like I am here.

Wow. 

I mean, WOW.

Walz is one unAmerican bumble-brained, insert-foot-into-maxillary-orifice disaster. 

So much for the Harris campaign's rural outreach if this gem reaches out and touches anyone.

I didn't realize this was going to be a thing, but it might be kind of interesting to tote up all the groups "folksy" Gov Tim has shivved on his way to the top.

He sure puts those butter-carving skills to good use in the weirdest ways.

Vets yesterday, farmers today, and the day's still young.

I might need a whiteboard for this yet.