Dear Michael, many thanks for the kind words about the quick take; yes, this is a major mistake. I tend to agree with your mentioning 1968-style riots recurring, which of course helped doom Humphrey. Beyond more than a whiff of anti-Semitism on the woke left, and nervousness about Shapiro's moderate views (which ought to be a strength but isn't to them) I do think the threat of riots over his stance on Israel may well have played a role. the other factor in Walz's favour is Walz is Nancy Pelosi's guy, and Nancy (more than Obama and the Clintons) orchestrated the coup that got rid of Biden. Harris owes her and Walz is part of the bill Thanks again!
Nicely done, John. This does indeed seem like a strategically bad move by the Harris campaign. In addition to the reasons you mentioned for selecting Walz, I wonder if wanting to avoid comparisons to 1968 factored into Harris’s decision. Selecting a pro-Israel running mate could potentially have “provoked" large-scale, ugly protests by the anti-Israel crowd at the convention later this month in Chicago – the same venue as the similarly ugly protests at the Democratic convention in 1968. Had another Chicago 1968-style series of images come out of this convention, it would have likely turned off some swing voters and would have given the Trump campaign a weakness to exploit.
This is all hypothetical, of course, but the scenario is at least feasible, and I can only imagine that the Harris campaign considered it…
Dear Michael, many thanks for the kind words about the quick take; yes, this is a major mistake. I tend to agree with your mentioning 1968-style riots recurring, which of course helped doom Humphrey. Beyond more than a whiff of anti-Semitism on the woke left, and nervousness about Shapiro's moderate views (which ought to be a strength but isn't to them) I do think the threat of riots over his stance on Israel may well have played a role. the other factor in Walz's favour is Walz is Nancy Pelosi's guy, and Nancy (more than Obama and the Clintons) orchestrated the coup that got rid of Biden. Harris owes her and Walz is part of the bill Thanks again!
Nicely done, John. This does indeed seem like a strategically bad move by the Harris campaign. In addition to the reasons you mentioned for selecting Walz, I wonder if wanting to avoid comparisons to 1968 factored into Harris’s decision. Selecting a pro-Israel running mate could potentially have “provoked" large-scale, ugly protests by the anti-Israel crowd at the convention later this month in Chicago – the same venue as the similarly ugly protests at the Democratic convention in 1968. Had another Chicago 1968-style series of images come out of this convention, it would have likely turned off some swing voters and would have given the Trump campaign a weakness to exploit.
This is all hypothetical, of course, but the scenario is at least feasible, and I can only imagine that the Harris campaign considered it…