POSTNOTE August 23, 2024: An editorial and a commentary about Tim Walz in Saturday Aug 23, Minnesota Star Tribune (formerly Minneapolis): Tim Walz Minnesota Star Tribune Aug 24 24

Tim Walz Minnesota State Fair August 29, 2022

Wednesday night Tom Walz accepted the nomination for vice-president of the United States at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.  The next morning was the first day of the Minnesota State Fair.  The last photo in this post (below) is one I took of Tim Walz at the Minnesota State Fair in 2022.  It is as Tim Walz is.

My ‘filing cabinet’ about Tim Walz is below, the last edit August 19.  It will remain unchanged.  Any additions will be here.  I know Walz’s back story better than most, from many years in Minnesota, a lifetime in the rural midwest as the son of career pubic school teachers, a teacher myself, a teacher’s union representative for many years, and father of a school principal and a school teacher, and grandfather of public school kids.  Any issues anyone has, ask me.  I can give an informed opinion.  (BTW Tim was not the person I thought Kamala Harris would choose for VP.  That did not relate in any way to my feelings about Walz, the person.  It strictly related to political practicalities Harris faced.  Also, BTW, the only front page ‘news’ about Walz that I did not include below was a front page piece a few days ago about a 30 years ago DUI incident in Nebraska.  I didn’t feel it was worth the time to comment about.  It was half a life-time ago for Walz, and he learned his lesson from an experience many of us share.  On with life.

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Original Post: Tim Walz is a common guy.  I’m sure he’d be okay with Wikipedia’s description of him.  There is plenty of detail.  There will be endless additional analyses.  I always like Heather Cox Richardson’s descriptions.  Here’s her post about Tuesday and Walz.  Here’s another from Jay Kuo.  I have lived in Walz’s state for many years, and disinformation will be abundant.  If you have any questions about anything, please ask.  I am happy to research and respond honestly.

I have been a resident of Minnesota for all but one of the last 61 years, 53 of those in the metropolitan Twin Cities, and I’m politically aware.  My formative years – all of them – were in small town North Dakota, son of school teachers, precisely the same kind of environment from which Tim Walz springs, in his case rural Nebraska.  Like Walz, my background is in public education, as a junior high teacher and mostly teacher union staff.  He taught geography, so did I.

My opinion: Tim Walz is a superb choice as candidate for Vice-President of the United States.

Everything about his background is readily available, including the items heading this piece.

Vice-Presidents are not useless window dressing.  At least two of them in my lifetime, Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson, were called to serve after Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John Kennedy died (see endnote).  Tim Walz reminds me of Harry Truman.  It surprised me to note that Harry Truman became President at age 60, the same age as Tim Walz is now.  Tim is about a month younger than my oldest son.  Ouch!)

The first time I actually met Tim Walz was probably in the summer of 2006, when he was running for Congress for the first time.  I was invited to a fundraiser in St. Paul.  He was running for Congress in another District than mine.  He made a positive impression, though he was obviously a rookie.  This was 18 years ago, before the first of his 12 years in Congress and nearing 6 years as Governor of Minnesota, 8 times elected.  In each assignment he has faithfully served and represented his constituents – the people who elected him.  We have benefitted from his experience.  Our state has 5 .7 million people, over half of those in the twin cities area,  We are a state of great variety and resulting great diversity.

Governor Walz wouldn’t know who I am.  I’m a constituent like anyone else.  I say this only to indicate that I have been very satisfied with how he has approached the very complex job of governing our great state.  The below photos are the ones I have of other personal ‘sightings’  over the years.  The first was at a picnic of senior Democrats.  The second was at a pre-2022 election event in Minneapolis which I seem to recall was for Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, featuring Vice-President Kamala Harris.  It was a deliberately small and very good event.  Peggy is Native American, currently the highest ranking Native American in elective executive office.  The third photo is a screen shot I took on August 6.

Few outside of Minnesota know Tim Walz.  I sense that will change quickly, and positively in coming weeks.

August 13, 2017 DFL Senior Caucus picnic (photo Dick Bernard)

October 22, 2022. Gov. Tim Walz, Vice-President Kamala Harris; Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. (photo Dick Bernard)

August 6, 2024

Here are the first comments (all in a.m. August 6) that came my way when Kamala Harris announced Tim had been tapped as her VP choice:

from Norm 8:32 a.m.:  The decision by Harris to go with Waltz as her VP choice is not at all surprising given his background as a former member of Congress, a veteran and a governor even though Minnesota is often consider to be a flyover state in terms of presidential politics.  To be fair, however, Donnie and the Emster and other followers and defenders of the man child who would be king claim that the Gopher State is in play in 2024.

Being the “super patriot” as the ignorant, insecure, arrogant, narcissistic, five-time draft dodger who always wraps himself in the flag is will make it hard for Donnie to characterize Waltz as sucker and loser as he has all men and women who have served, been wounded or captured or killing when in the military service of our country and not risk losing support from  many veterans.

Doing so during the campaign will or at least should be offensive as all hell to most veterans and families of veterans save for the leaders of the VFW and the American Legion who always have their lips solidly attached to Donnie’s behind no matter how much he has insulted veterans with such characterizations.

Again, a good and an obvious best choice for VP made by Harris.

from Brad, 9:25 a.m.: Great Day Dick, Looks like St. Paul is buzzing this morning!  I am so pleased that a leader with his background is a candidate for Veep.

from Mark, 9:30 a.m.: The choice of Tim Walz as VP candidate is a massive gift to Republicans.

from Evonne, 10:25 a.m.: Wow!  Good choice!

from SAK Aug 9: Just search on “weird as hell” 😊! Mr Walz has a point.  The BBC profiled JD Vance: here

from Rich Aug 9: Regarding the selection of Tim Walz: It seems the degree of anti-semitism in the US, and continuing instability in the Gaza-Israel conflict, may have played into Harris’ decision favoring Walz. To keep the eye on the prize, (defeating Donald Trump), Harris may have been inclined to turn towards Walz, thus avoiding any focus on the personal faith of Josh Shapiro and his personal views on the Middle East.

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END NOTE:  There were other succession dilemmas in addition to the deaths of FDR and JFK.  Nixon resigned the presidency, succeeded by Gerald Ford, who had earlier replaced Vice-President Spiro Agnew who had resigned.  Lyndon Johnson completed JFK’s first term without a Vice-President.  Ronald Reagan had a near miss with death by assassination very early in his first term.  There are other earlier history examples, and of course life itself carries its own surprises that affect even the youngest among us.

END NOTE 2, August 9: Heather Cox Richardson’s column in this morning’s mailbox remembers President Nixon’s resignation from the presidency this day in 1974.  Do you remember?  I sure do, including where I was when he spoke to the nation about resigning…at St. Benedict’s College in Minnesota at my unions summer leadership conference.   We were a somber bunch watching the TV in Mary Commons.

Piling on.   Of course, politics is a ‘blood sport’ for too many.  The morning after the Walz nomination was announced, his Congressional District successor Brad Finseth was quoted on NPR news about Walz, that “he’s changed”.  That was about the extent of the quote.  Maybe Walz has changed.  Maybe the district has changed.  Change is normal.  Finseth is in his second year in Congress.  He succeeded Jim Hagedorn, who had died earlier in 2022, and who was one of two Minnesota Congresspersons who were certified election deniers in 2021 (the other was Michelle Fischbach).

But my favorite, hard to top, was at the Minnesota State Fair in August, 2022.  I was walking down the street near the Education Building and along came a teenager with someone who seemed like his Dad.  The kid was wearing a simple sandwich board sign, which I remember was probably nothing more than an 8 1/2×11 piece of paper on which was written in large letters “Walz Failed”.  I always have a camera along, and it would have been a perfect photo, but the kid looked humiliated enough as it was, and I wasn’t at the Fair to get in an argument.  But it is cemented in my memory.  Walz won reelection easily three months later….

at Minnesota State Fair August 29, 2022. from Juliann: Great smile which he is displaying on the campaign trail as well.

from James, August 14 12:30 a.m.: [Dick, 9 a.m.: I will be responding to this a little later at end of this letter.  See August 19, below].

Well, once again, I tried to add a reply to your blog, this time to the Tim Walz essay, and got back an error message.  I’ve gotten to where I just expect that my software and yours will not play nice together, so I copied my contribution before sending, and did not try to send a second time (because sometimes it has actually “taken” both times, even though I get the error messages).

So, in case it’s not there, here is what I submitted:

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Well, I agree, at least, that Walz, in person, seems to be a great guy.  I met him when I attended what I believe may have been the first Twin Cities fund raiser for his first Gubernatorial campaign, at a private home in the tony lakes region of my city, Minneapolis.  He seemed like the “adult in the room” “from Central Casting”, if I may mix two metaphors.  I took an immediate liking to him and was very glad when he won.
However, I am not normally a “vibes” voter, nor am I even a “values voter”.  I am a policy-and-performance voter, and Walz has been something quite a bit worse than just a disappointment to me.
Most significantly, he dithered while my Mpls. neighborhood burned in 2020, and blamed my Mayor for allegedly not requesting the deployment of the National Guard properly.  Mayor Frey is saying all the “correct” and loyal things, today, but things he said, texted to others, and emailed AT THE TIME betray that Walz simply declined to do his job when Frey asked him to.  That the Mayor didn’t “do the paperwork” correctly in a moment of crisis is either true or false.  If false, Walz’ using that as an excuse is reprehensible.  If true, as the senior official and the one tasked with actually deciding whether or not to deploy the Guard, and how, it was WALZ’s job to TELL Jacob what “more” he needed – not to end the communication with no decision.  So, true or false – either way – it’s inexcusable.  We in Mpls. are still paying the price.  My Police Precinct still operates out of a different part of town, miles away – the blackened burnt out hulk of the Precinct Station still stands, partly surrounded by the still-empty lots from other buildings that also burned, but were not of such sturdy and modern structure for their skeletons to survive.  Many other empty lots still exist up and down the length of Lake Street.  Drive it yourself and see.  The scenes were and still are similar up and down University Avenue in St. Paul.  A drug store six blocks from my house, to the NNW, burned.  A GAS STATION six blocks to the ESE burned.  Yes, the mobs were torching gas stations!  And that was 2-1/2 miles from Lake Street.  This has not to this day been adequately reported.  Walz needed “paperwork”, but couldn’t be bothered to tell the Mayor what he needed.  His standard explanation has included things that, frankly, I can’t imagine a Mayor being able to provide, things that would have been the job of the Governor and the uniformed leaders of the Guard to have decided, after asking the Mayor and his people some questions.  But Walz dithered.  Pretty much until Trump threatened to intervene, I’m afraid.  Much is being made of Trump having said at the time that Walz did a good job.  If you read the quotes objectively, what Trump said, in his usual bombastic self-important way, is that Walz did a good job of jumping when Trump threatened, and… Look! What I told him to do worked within hours.  That “spin” is not actually false.  It is more or less how it DID play out.
And Walz dithered on the Feed Our Future scandal costing somewhere between a quarter and a third of a BILLION dollars.
As we are just now learning, he ALSO dithered on almost half a billion of other Covid-era government funding fraud.
On the other hand, he did not dither on issuing edicts during Covid.  He just made mind-bogglingly bad decisions while issuing them.  Closing entire small town business districts, enabling the Walmarts and Targets to further damage those places.  Closing schools and keeping them closed way too long.  Keeping people out of their churches, even for funerals (as an agnostic, I shouldn’t care, but as the child and sibling of Christians – both Catholics and Lutherans – well, somehow I do), while Walz himself attended a Memorial Service with an attendance of 500.  Setting up a hotline so folks could rat out their neighbors.  Yikes.
There’s more, as I’m sure you are hearing in the news, but, most of the rest of it speaks to his character, not policy and performance.  And I’m a policy and performance voter, so I don’t really care about his National Guard sergeant escapades, although, having a nephew who is an Air Force F15-E fighter pilot about to be deployed for the third time to the Middle East, I would not be surprised if it didn’t sit well with HIM that Walz implied combat experience he did not have, and ducked out when it became obvious he was about to actually have some.
One of my Chicago cousins, also a Democrat, texted me just after Harris named Walz as her pick and asked me what I thought – expecting a response somewhere between “good!” and “great!”.  My one-sentence response, summing up years of exposure to our Governor, was that I found him “a well-intentioned, affable, bumbling, utter incompetent.”  I am giving benefit-of-the-doubt, that I’m not 100% sure he deserves, with “well-intentioned”.
I cannot vote for him.

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I’m sorry I can’t share your enthusiasm about Walz – I really am.  But, well… the above pretty much says what I have to say.

Response from Dick, 9 a.m.:  Jim and I are good friends, and he has commented on other things from time to time at this space.  The above letter came from him via e-mail, and was intended by him for publication here.  I am sending him a letter in response, today, and later will reprint the letter here [bracketing any amendments].  I’ll do that later.

A little earlier, a couple of correspondents suggested that Gov. Walz was somehow in cahoots on the big financial fraud case relating to a fraudulent food program funded by USDA during the Covid years.  Of course, it is easy to blame the Governor for anything that happened on his watch, even if this was a federal program.  In the federal food fraud case, which has been highly publicized here, the facts are hidden from view by persons out to damage Walz.  Here’s the latest information I have about the food case.  You’ll note it is a federal case, ongoing, many found guilty so far, and continuing….

This year I applied and qualified for election judge in my county.  I asked to be on the reserve list, which they accommodated, and I did and passed the mandatory training program.  I did not have to serve in the primary election yesterday, and remain on the list for the general election.  I have been highly impressed by the manner in which my voluntary service has been received and acknowledged.

August 19, 2024:  I responded to James (above) with a two-page U.S.mail letter on August 14.  Much of my response related to James criticism of the handling of the chaos following the murder of George Floyd on May 25.  I blog, and my posts for May 27, 29, 30 and 31 directly relate to the insanity facing us all in that terrible time.  Specifically I noted the following below the Crisis Sequence graphic at May 29, “A City Burning”: The Minnesota Governors briefing and update late this morning was very useful in identifying the very complex nature of taking action in a crisis of the sort we witnessed overnight, including the opportunistic involvement of anarchists and looters (two specific and not necessarily related ‘groups’ who are unverifiable, and thus potentially ‘false flags’ by those seeking to blame someone).  The Governor, who himself served 24 years in the Minnesota National Guard, and who was backed by people like the State Patrol and Minnesota National Guard and others, talked about assorted chains of authority and responsibility in a civil society, from local police and sheriff, to mayors, on and on and on.  Nothing is ever as simple as it appears to be in a tweet, or a complaint.  Yes, there were mistakes, and there will always be mistakes, but not willful.

Personally, I was witness to this kind of complexity very often in my day to day job years ago.  What was initially presented as an absolute right/wrong dichotomy, etc., was never so clear, the closer one got to the actual situation, and actors.  I’d simply advise everyone to be  careful about a rush to judgement, and assessing blame, though it is very tempting.

I also responded to James comments about military service (I served two years in the Army and come from a family with a lot of military history), and about Covid (like everyone else, we dodged Covid-19 as best we could.  I’ve had all the vaccinations, and will get the booster when it comes available.  So far we’ve escaped Covid-19, and we know many people who have had it, both initially and in later editions.