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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[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 17 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Its just white noise. If you went back two months and addressed the KHive / Bidenbro block that was fanatically endorsing this campaign, does anyone seriously think "soft" or "safe" would be a term they'd use to describe the media appearances or the ground game?

No, of course not! Harris was Girl Boss. Cheeto Mussolini was the weak one. JD Vance was too busy fucking couches to answer the hard questions like "Why do you enjoy sucking Putin's cock?" and "Why do you enjoy sucking Elon Musk's cock?" and "Why do you enjoy sucking Peter Thiel's cock?"

Meanwhile, Harris was out there punching illegal immigrants. She was making those effeminate cop-hating LGBTers eat Terf. She was out there dropping Facts And Logic on those stupid Iran-loving antisemetic ISIS students. She was bringing out the big guns with Liz Fucking Cheney and making sure every voter knew that America First A#1 City On A Hill sound of F-35s flying overhead we're going to Beat Russia and Obliterate China and Nuke Far-Right Islamic Hate.

Nobody thought the campaign was "soft" in October of 2024. They were priding themselves on their BlueMAGA credentials.

Its only after they lost that we got to retcon the campaign as too squishy and liberal and egalitarian. Maybe next time they'll bomb Dearborn Michigan or stage a full invasion of Tiajuana to prove they're serious about being the most reactionary party in America.

[–] TheresNodiee@lemm.ee 13 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

I'm reading his "safe" comment in a bit of a different light. The Harris campaign was playing "safe" politics by ooh rah-ing about the military, guns, and the border. By throwing their full support behind Israel and shouting down and cutting out concerned for the Palestinian people. By running around with Liz Cheney.

Their campaign started off strong. Kamala was brat, Walz was calling Trump and his allies weird and joking about Vance fucking his couch. There was energy but they dropped the ball by switching to the "safe" Democrat campaign book. They didn't go out to speak to the people where they were at town halls like Walz said in the article, they didn't have firebrand Walz shining a flashlight on how bizarre Trump's people are, they didn't have a message that would excite the people and really shake up a statue quo that was slowly and inexorably draining Americans of their economic prospects. They just played the safe Democrat game of incrementalism and subservience to wealth and power rather than the people.

Obviously Walz didn't say all this, but I think the "safety" he refers to absolutely refers to Kamala's campaign adhering too closely to a traditional campaign style that was not going to win them much enthusiastic support.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Whereas I’m taking walz more literally. In my experience, they came out swinging, full of energy and novelty, getting that “weird” label stuck. I can even understand lack of policy or platform since apparently we no longer care about that.

… but then they started answering “no change”, the energy faded, they dropped out of the news. I don’t know if it’s just me, but they were invisible leading up to the election. Literally more concerned about not screwing up, playing it safe.

It’s not that Harris’ campaigne adhered too closely to a traditional campaign style, but that they let up on the gas approaching the finish line

[–] lorty@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)
[–] RedAggroBest@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

No, that's exactly what he meant. They stuffed Walz in a box and paraded around with the Cheneys the moment they got that endorsement. They played safe by playing to the center when they started strong by picking one of the most progressive governors for VP.

[–] AugustWest@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

I enjoyed your comment for a few reasons, but have one question. Did you pick Dearborn Michigan at random off a mental map, or was there some specific reason for that city in particular?

[–] pachrist@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago

I think it is the city in the US with the highest percentage of Arab Americans. But also maybe there's a bit of oil there.

[–] ravinggerbil@lemm.ee 8 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Dearborn is frequently spoken about in conservative circles as “being taken over by Muslims.” Maybe that has something to do with it.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

re: @AugustWest@lemmy.world

That's why, yes. Big Somali ex-pat community. Sort of like how Columbus, OH got dumped on with the "They're eating the dogs and the cats" line because older white residents were panicking at the influx of Haitians working the gradually renewing manufacturing sector.

[–] i_ben_fine@lemmy.one 7 points 7 hours ago

Dearborn was also the center of the pro-Palestine movement within the Democratic party.