The ‘gee shucks’ routine was precisely that: a routine. But what excuse did the press have to play along?
The ‘gee shucks’ routine was precisely that: a routine. But what excuse did the press have to play along?
A merica’s weirdest governor re-emerged on the national stage last week to re-energize the floundering Democratic Party and help “fill the [leadership] void.”
However, rather than galvanize his colleagues, Walz, who waves hello with both hands, mostly reminded everyone why he and former Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election. His reappearance also reminded everyone that the national press, which tried to sell voters a carefully curated image of Walz during the general election, is not so hard-boiled and scrutinous as it pretends to be.
“On my phone,” Walz remarked last week at an event in Wisconsin, “I know some of you know this — on the iPhone, they’ve got that little stock app. I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day.”
The governor, like the Democratic Party itself, has declared Tesla owner Elon Musk persona non grata for his attempts to cut fraud, waste, and abuse in the U.S. federal government.
“Two-hundred and twenty-five and dropping!” Walz said to applause, referring to Telsa’s dipping stock price. “And — and if you own one, if you own one, we’re not blaming you.”
What a remarkably idiotic thing for any governor to say, let alone the governor of Minnesota.
First, no American governor should celebrate an American company’s falling stock prices. Tesla employs more than 80,000 people, many of whom have stock options. Rooting for their failure and even potential layoffs is just bad retail politics. It’s also remarkably petty.
Second, the governor would do well to spend less time worrying about Musk and more time learning about his state.
As of June 2024, Minnesota had 1.6 million shares of Tesla in its retirement fund and 211,000 shares in its non-retirement fund, according to Minnesota State Board of Investment records. More specifically, the board reported holding 1.6 million shares of Tesla stock “with a booked value of $161 million value, and a market value of $319 million,” according to Republican Minnesota State Representative Shane Mekeland. “The value of the stock is now $377 million based on yesterday’s closing price and is up 34 percent in the past year.”
In other words, Walz’s remark is even dumber than it appears on first blush. He is too dim-witted to realize he’s rooting against the financial interests of his constituents. There’s bad retail politics, and then there’s whatever Tim Walz is. Given everything we know now about Walz the man and politician, it seems crazy that there was a time not so long ago when members of the press tried to sell this Minnesota doofus as a manly, sensible, next-door-neighbor type of guy, one who would appeal to the “normie” middle with his “straight talk” and “affable” personality.
Remember that?
“Is Tim Walz the Midwestern Dad Democrats Need?” asked Ezra Klein in the New York Times. The subhead declared, “The governor of Minnesota wants Democrats to own the normie center.”
“Tim Walz Is an Absolute Balm for My Country Heart,” said the original headline of a Times opinion article by journalist Sarah Smarsh. The subhead declared, “The Minnesota governor fills a decades-long geographic messaging gap for the party.” The headline was changed later to declare, “Democrats Have Needed Someone Like Tim Walz for Decades.”
“What a relief,” Smarsh said in 2024, “to see emerge on the national stage the Minnesota governor and Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, who embodies the earnest, humane, rural people who shaped me and the prairie populism that shaped the progressive foundations of the Great Plains.”
The New Yorker portrayed Walz as a character ripped directly from Mayberry — a man who “brings small-town bona fides” to the Democratic ticket and one who is “affable and approachable” and “always likely to talk with his legislative opponents.”
The Guardian reported that Walz “comes across as what he is: a straight-talking teacher, America’s youth football coach.”
The Associated Press called Walz “plain-spoken,” adding, “It would be hard to find a more vivid representative of the American heartland than Walz.”
The most honest thing written at the time came from, of all places, National Public Radio, which remarked casually that Walz’s “Midwestern family man persona has become a key part of his image for the campaign, and part of how Harris hopes to appeal to voters in the region.”
Yes, obviously. The “gee shucks” routine was precisely that: a routine. But what excuse was there by the press to play along as if it weren’t a put-on?
Last week, during his “fill the void” tour, Walz alleged during an interview that his masculinity scares conservative and Republican voters.
“I think I scare them a little bit, [which is] why they spend so much time on me, ” he said. “No, I’m serious, because they know I can fix a truck, they know I’m not bullsh***ing on this.”
The governor added, “Not that I spend too much time thinking about this; it just baffled me how much time they spent trying to attack me that I was not masculine enough in their vision. . . . I think I could kick most of their ass.”
You weren’t wrong. You were right when you suspected Walz of obvious inauthenticity. You were right when you said he came across as a jerk. You were right when, after the vice-presidential debate, you questioned his intelligence.
The commentators and journalists who tried like hell to sell you on progressive Andy Taylor were wrong.
Again.