One more time on the Walz veep selection, before other campaign topics dominate the presidential debate – Check out “Walz unifies the party, will bring working class voters back into the fold” by The Hill’s Max Burns, who writes that “Harris’ choice also did the impossible, uniting progressive and conservative lawmakers in Washington. Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) hailed Walz as an “excellent decision” and a leader who “won’t back down under tight odds.” Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) — no friend of the left — wrote on X that he could “think of no one better than Governor Walz to help bring our country closer together.”

That’s an impressive ideological range. Burns adds that “in selecting Walz, Harris has done more than just unify her party ahead of a major election. She’s found a running mate Republicans can’t seem to hit.” Of course, they will continue to attack Walz and they will score a few hits, which will resonate mostly with their hard-core supporters. It is hard to imagine cheap shots from the GOP ticket winning over many swing voters.

Burns explains further, “In a time when many Midwestern and Rust Belt voters are abandoning their ancestral loyalty to the Democratic Party in favor of Trumpian populism, Walz represents a vision of the Democratic Party that harkens back to its core farmer-labor progressivism. He’s built a political legacy by winning over exactly the voters Trump needs in November. That’s a nightmare for a GOP that has wrapped itself in working class rhetoric while coddling the world’s richest and most powerful business tycoons.”

Also, “As governor, Walz has also been strategic in his progressive priorities. He championed broadly popular proposals that often received bipartisan legislative support, including enacting universal free school meals, expanding paid family and medical leave, and passing universal background checks for gun purchases. A hunter and gun owner himself, Walz found a path to enacting serious gun safety reforms by reminding gun-owning Minnesotans that the NRA has left them behind in its quest to value firearms over human lives….“We can’t turn on the TV and have these things happen,” Walz said in 2017. “The NRA you see now is not the NRA when they were teaching us gun safety classes when we were growing up. It’s been a clear change from their position for advocating for responsible gun ownership to a position that is extreme and unhelpful to the conversation.”

In addition, “As a former high school football coach, a teacher and later a member of Congress, Walz has actually served the kinds of rural communities Vance pretends to be from. He speaks the language and understands the values in a way that can’t be faked. No wonder Trump and Vance are working overtime to try and minimize Walz’s down-home bona fides.”

Burns concludes, “The bigger question is whether Vance will risk his delicately-assembled public persona in a head-to-head debate with Walz. Trump’s campaign has in theory committed to a vice presidential debate, but quickly cast doubt on those plans when Joe Biden exited the race last month. Since then, Trump has repeatedly ducked calls for a debate anywhere except on friendly Fox News, likely reasoning that his campaign can hardly afford a major fumble this close to Election Day. It doesn’t sound like Trump is very confident in his running mate’s debating prowess.”