Governor Tim Walz headlined the festivities at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last night, August 21. While a sympathetic media greeted his oratory as a defining moment in the Harris/Walz campaign, there was little mention of policy. It seems the narrative is taking precedence over numbers and that the 2024 strategy is to ignore the last four years in favor of a manufactured and unspecified “vibe.”
With Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and members of Democrat leadership all appearing alongside the VP contender, there was plenty of talk about Donald Trump and JD Vance. Viewers hoping for the policy road tests that usually mark such conventions may have been disappointed. Slogans, however, were very much the order of the day, and that might, in fact, have been the whole point.
The Secret DNC
The most anticipated speaker of the night was Harris’ number two, Tim Walz. He spoke for less than 20 minutes and did not grace the stage until almost 11:30 PM ET. Similar to President Joe Biden, who spoke on the opening night, it seems the party leadership would rather not have the key players in front of a prime-time audience. And there’s a method to that particular madness.
By having those who face the most scrutiny make their pitches after the East Coast has gone to bed and the West Coast has tuned out, very few people will actually see the speeches in real time. Instead, Americans will be treated to packaged soundbites and headlines that the editors of the left-leaning media feel will advance the ticket’s cause.
It’s a cozy relationship that has, thus far, served the Harris campaign well. Kamala has now gone 32 days without a substantive interview or press conference, and yet, as the Media Research Center revealed, the prime-time network coverage from ABC, NBC, and CBS has given her 66% more coverage than Trump, with 86% of that being “positive.”
The current strategy appears to be to let the media do the heavy lifting of selling her campaign to the public.
Walz Clams the Corner on Freedom
A recurring theme of Walz’s address was “freedom.” He mentioned the word repeatedly during his short speech. Ironically, the 2023 edition of Freedom in the 50 States lists Minnesota as 41st in its ranking of “how [the state’s] public policies affect individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres.” He said:
“When Republicans use the word — freedom — they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office, corporations free to pollute your air and water, and banks free to take advantage of customers.
“But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love, freedom to make your own health-care decisions and, yeah, your kids’ freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.”
He also spent a portion of his precious few minutes on stage to launch verbal potshots at Trump and, especially, JD Vance. “Now, I grew up in Butte, Nebraska, a town of 400 people. I had 24 kids in my high school class. And none of them went to Yale,” he said in a sideswipe at Vance, who graduated from the esteemed university. Interestingly, the two speakers prior to Mr. Walz’s debut as VP nominee were former President Bill Clinton and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, alumni of the fabled institution.
His diatribe against the opposing team continued:
“If these guys get back in the White House, they’ll start jacking up the costs on the middle class. They’ll repeal the Affordable Care Act. They’ll gut Social Security and Medicare. And they will ban abortion across this country, with or without Congress.”
Walz followed with a statement that, if it were as widely publicized as his statement on freedom, would raise numerous eyebrows. He said, “Here’s the thing. It’s an agenda nobody asked for. It’s an agenda that serves nobody except the richest and the most extreme amongst us. And it’s an agenda that does nothing for our neighbors in need.”
One wonders who it was that asked for the open border policies that have been the hallmark of Kamala Harris’ time as VP and border czar.
Soundbites Over Speeches
The short address was chock full of sporting metaphors, pastiche, and political homilies, but it was not a speech in the general sense of the word. Veering from topic to topic without a natural connection, it seemed designed for snippets on X and TikTok posts and, more importantly, for 20-second soundbites to be played ad nauseam on the network news.
The convention organizers have determined that the event will be about positivity and “joy.” It’s an easy sell to the committed party supporters, and it helps the Fourth Estate aid its favored candidate with an easy pre-packaged narrative. Yet, the time must come for Harris and Walz to set out their vision for the future in policy proposals and concrete steps. The longer they leave it, the longer they rely on media hype and superstar interventions, and the more it seems that behind the façade of joyfulness, Ms. Harris and her team are terrified of what may happen when they are exposed to the light of public scrutiny.
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