Is Kaine fatigue real?

[Lyin' Steve]

Tim Kaine is the favorite to take the VP spot.  He's a successful governor and senator and an admittedly just OK DNC chair.  He's smart, charming and likable.  He was a civil rights lawyer for 17 years before starting his political career, and in his early years he did lots of work as a jesuit missionary in Honduras.  He's pro-coal, serves on various foreign policy and military committees, and was the first Senator to deliver a speech entirely in Spanish.  He already passed VP vetting for Obama in 2008.  He brings Virginia.  It's rather obvious that he's the best pick for the VP slot and would undoubtedly make an excellent vice president.

Yet it seems like nobody wants to actually put their money on the guy or argue for him.  PredictWise only just now gave him the edge over Julián Castro.  PredictIt has him only 6% ahead of Bernie Sanders.  I never see anyone say "hell yeah, Tim Kaine is the best pick."  What's up with that?  Are there really Tim Kaine haters out there?  Do people just see him as a backup plan for their pet VP pick?  Is he just no fun to root for because he's obviously the front runner?  Are we sick of hearing that Tim Kaine is gonna get it?  Do people just find Elizabeth Warren, Al Franken and Tom Perez more fun to talk about?  Or am I just going mad and actually everyone is cool with Kaine?

[HagridOfTheDeep]

He just seems exceedingly boring.

[Lyin' Steve]

Whaddaya mean he's not exciting?
Here he is, undercover as Ed Markey, scaring children during the Iran nuclear deal hearings.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

I am not fatigued of Tim Kaine.

However, I am fatigued of VP speculation.

[IceSpear]

I am not fatigued of Tim Kaine.

However, I am fatigued of VP speculation.

This. I've wanted Kaine to be VP ever since Warner imploded in 2014 for the reasons you articulated, but I don't care enough to argue about it because VP speculation is inherently pointless and based off little to nothing. None of us know what Hillary or her campaign's thought process is, so it's impossible to know what she's looking for, and we also have no clue how any of these people will perform on a national stage. I try to avoid VP threads.

[Angrie]

Whaddaya mean he's not exciting?
Here he is, undercover as Ed Markey, scaring children during the Iran nuclear deal hearings.

Umm, frightening children like that is not a positive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkyyp6eBqUQ

It goes against Hillary's best argument against Trump, which is that Trump lacks the seriousness and self-control to be commander in chief.

Anyway, the reason why nobody talks about Kaine is because he seems to be basically a fake Hispanic. If Kaine is picked, it will look like Hillary wanted to pick a Hispanic, but couldn't find any that she liked, so she decided to pick a substitute fake Hispanic who speaks Spanish who checks the ordinary white male boxes and is from an important swing state, but can also sorta-kinda-but-not-really appeal to Hispanics. If you are going to do that, might as well pick a real Hispanic. Hence the fascination with Castro, Beccera, Perez, etc...

[Kingpoleon]

Fatiguingly boring.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

DNC chair when there was a net loss of 63 seats in the House.

[Angrie]

DNC chair when there was a net loss of 63 seats in the House.

And you think that's his fault?

[Bigby]

I am fore fatigued of Julian Castro, honestly.

[This account no longer in use.]

He's like Julian Castro, but he doesn't even have a chance at pandering to minorities working for him.

[Maxwell]

Kaine is an incompetent bore. It's like picking DWS to the actual ticket, which is a terrible decision, but I feel like people on the forum justify Kaine's terrible performance as DNC because he has a penis.

Kaine is a bad pick. Only Inside Ball D.C. People really like him, and that's because I assume he's a nice guy.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

DNC chair when there was a net loss of 63 seats in the House.

And you think that's his fault?

Oh that's right, no one in power is ever to blame. It's all the "professional leftists' faults".

[Virginiá]

DNC chair when there was a net loss of 63 seats in the House.

And you think that's his fault?

Oh that's right, no one in power is ever to blame. It's all the "professional leftists' faults".

Those losses came in a midterm rocked by a large recession and other image problems for the Democratic party, including in terms of policy (PPACA). It was pretty much a given they were going to lose seats, following WH party's midterm loss tradition and the fact that many of those seats were R+'s. Democrats were way too overextended.

You can't just point to the top and blame them for everything. Sometimes there is nothing that can be done. Could Kaine and Obama have acted in ways to mitigate the damage? Of course. Could they have avoided large losses altogether? Probably not.

Though if you're going to point fingers like that, then why? What did he do wrong? What didn't he do that he should have? Do you think that those losses could have been avoided entirely? Surely you have some reasons here if you're going to blame someone for it.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Kaine is an incompetent bore. It's like picking DWS to the actual ticket, which is a terrible decision, but I feel like people on the forum justify Kaine's terrible performance as DNC because he has a penis.

Kaine is a bad pick. Only Inside Ball D.C. People really like him, and that's because I assume he's a nice guy.

I like him.  One of the few Democrat politicians right now who seem interested in the Constitution.

[indietraveler]

I think he's fine. He would be qualified, but would he bring excitement? What's going to be better, a qualified moderate or a far left liberal who could bring a lot of energy? At this point, I'm leaning towards the latter but I can see the value of both sides.

[IceSpear]

Can we please stop pretending the party chair actually makes a non negligible difference in election results? And to the extent they do make a difference, it's certainly not in wave elections.

[Suburbia]

He's a white male in Obama's Democratic Party. Probably that's why. I'm surprised that Vice President Biden was so strongly considering running in Obama's party.

He's a good pick though.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

DNC chair when there was a net loss of 63 seats in the House.

And you think that's his fault?

Oh that's right, no one in power is ever to blame. It's all the "professional leftists' faults".

Those losses came in a midterm rocked by a large recession and other image problems for the Democratic party, including in terms of policy (PPACA). It was pretty much a given they were going to lose seats, following WH party's midterm loss tradition and the fact that many of those seats were R+'s. Democrats were way too overextended.

You can't just point to the top and blame them for everything. Sometimes there is nothing that can be done. Could Kaine and Obama have acted in ways to mitigate the damage? Of course. Could they have avoided large losses altogether? Probably not.

Though if you're going to point fingers like that, then why? What did he do wrong? What didn't he do that he should have? Do you think that those losses could have been avoided entirely? Surely you have some reasons here if you're going to blame someone for it.

The left was constantly attacked in 2010 by Rahm Emanuel and the like. Obama's defenders always said he was playing 11 dimensional chess or some nonsense like that. Well, I don't think they could have done worse than lose 63 House seats if they listened to the left. We didn't even get a weak public option for crying out loud.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Kaine is about as generically and prototypically "boring white guy" as they come. His only real advantage is his Senate seat would still get filled by a Democrat.

[BlueSwan]

He's a sfae pick in an election where safe seems to be losing. The upside to picking Warren just seems much much greater, even if the potential downside is also greater. But sometimes you have to risk losing to win. Clinton can't run a risk-averse campaign against Trump.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

He's a sfae pick in an election where safe seems to be losing.

Clinton / Kaine 2016, safe just like Dewey / Warren 1948!

[Figueira]

I dislike him because he's anti-choice (and apparently also pro-coal?). However, he'd probably be an OK pick from Clinton's perspective. Maybe a little boring, but I don't think that's really much of a disadvantage.

[Mr. Morden]

I dislike him because he's anti-choice.

No he's not.  He says that while he doesn't like abortion, he thinks it should be legal:

http://www.kaineforva.com/individual_rights

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[Landslide Lyndon]

He seems to be lacking on the attack dog front.
OTOH, Warren has gotten under TRUMP's skin and Franken can certainly use his wit and humor to spice things up.