this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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Summary

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has criticized the Harris-Walz 2024 presidential campaign for playing it too "safe," saying they should have held more in-person events and town halls.

In a Politico interview, Walz—known for labeling Trump and Vance as "weird"—blamed their cautious approach partly on the abbreviated 107-day campaign timeline after Harris became the nominee in August.

Using football terminology, he said Democrats were in a "prevent defense" when "we never had anything to lose, because I don't think we were ever ahead."

While acknowledging his share of responsibility for the loss, Walz is returning to the national spotlight and didn't rule out a 2028 presidential run, saying, "I'm not saying no."

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[–] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 77 points 15 hours ago (4 children)

One problem the DNC has is that they keep throwing boring ass lawyers into a game that isn't about law. It's about being a face the country knows to run the government.

You need charisma, you need to appeal to people, and you need to be human. Obama did this perfectly. Bill Clinton had it in him. Biden at least had such a long record in politics he could wing it his first term. I don't know how he managed to win, but he did.

Clinton, while being a lawyer, had already been the governor of Arkansas. Meaning he had the experience being that executive. He could convince people to work beyond their own interests. Al Gore, we all know, won the 2000 presidential election, but the supreme court let everything get fucked up.

Kerry? Never stood a chance. Hilary? No chance. Kamala? As much as we needed her to win, she was unappealing to stupid people.

Lawyers, by nature of their career, have to read and understand the most boring ass shit and then convince others that the boring ass text supports their side of the case. That means a lot of them are boring people.

You wanna know why Walz is popular? He fucking loves football. He can connect to highschool students. IDK about you, but if you've ever met high schoolers, they aren't the brightest, and bored easily. He's progressive, but he won't shove it in someone's face to be more righteous. Not many people can do that.

To win an election, you have to excite people. Trump, despite his rhetoric clearly being terrifying, was, unfortunately, exciting.

[–] arken@lemmy.world 17 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

I mean, I agree with you, but this is also a huge problem. This is why you have someone who pretended to be a successful businessman on TV as a president now. I really miss the days when boring but competent people could run a country.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago

Boring yet competent people don't get elected in a country with mass media. They just don't get coverage, so people don't know they're there.

As example, look at the first televised presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon. Kennedy was young and inexperienced, but let them put makeup on him for the debate. Nixon had more experience but looked like a sweaty mess on TV. This helped Kennedy a lot.

[–] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 9 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

It's far easier to have a better candidate than change how 80 million people think.

[–] match@pawb.social 1 points 12 hours ago

Is this a problem of how people think, or is it a problem of what sells views in newspapers (and that media companies are too rich)?

[–] Hikermick@lemmy.world 24 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Obama covered both lawyer and entertaining. He also had an appeal similar to Reagan, confident and comforting during uncertain times. The conservative media made politics entertaining, now we have entertainers as politicians and I can't get on board with that

[–] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 9 points 13 hours ago

It's not something we are going to change anytime soon. Far too many people to change to counter that.

Instead, we need candidates like Walz, who have a brain on their shoulders, and have a way to excite outside of putting on a show.

Bernie Sanders was another example of it. AoC is as well.

[–] Retropunk64@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 hours ago

Biden won because he wasn't trump. Simple as that.

[–] btaf45@lemmy.world -2 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

This is pretty much all true. Except for...

One problem the DNC has is that they keep throwing boring ass lawyers into a game that isn’t about law

The DNC wasn't making the decisions. The Harris campaign was.

Kerry? Never stood a chance. Hilary? No chance. Kamala? As much as we needed her to win, she was unappealing to stupid people.

Somewhat true. But Hillary could have won if she had simply mixed in a few bearded Biker types in the background crowd as prominently as all the Muslim women. But these candidates were the mistakes of the voters, not the DNC.

To win an election, you have to excite people. Trump, despite his rhetoric clearly being terrifying, was, unfortunately, exciting.

I change the channel whenever Traitorapist Trump talks so that he never gets a full sentence out. Still do. I don't want to hear one more lie.

[–] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 5 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

But you and I aren't the person Trump is trying to excite.

It's the 25% of Americans that equate critical thought with torture. That is the chunk of people you can't reason with. So you have to have a way for them to care at all. Unloading garbage nonsense that has the occasional inflammatory rhetoric is exciting.

Talking about football? Not exciting to me, but these 25% of Americans? You better bet your ass they like it. They like beer and they like the idea of not having to worry about finances as well.

[–] btaf45@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago

Unloading garbage nonsense that has the occasional inflammatory rhetoric is exciting.

Oh I agree that the #1 problem is that Harris needed to use way more aggressive rhetoric against Traitorapist Trump.