Tim Kaine is a genius
The third night of the Democratic National Convention brought us the highlight reel of high-powered speakers to end them all: we got the last great signature speech of Vice President Joe Biden, whose alternation between calm dismantling of Trump’s “malarkey” and enthusiastic repping of America was extraordinarily effective. We got Michael Bloomberg, an independent businessman to whom Trump’s wealth appears a rounding error, mocking and undercutting the Orange Fascist’s claims of expertise and business acumen. We got Barack Obama delivering one of the finest addresses of his presidency — second in my mind only to his incredible and emotional eulogy in Charleston to nine victims of neo-Nazi domestic terrorism — underscoring that this election is not about liberalism versus conservatism, but democracy against authoritarianism, hope against fear and hate.
And somewhere in there, VP nominee Tim Kaine was boring. The consensus on Progressive Twitter was that Tim Kaine, a former Governor and current Senator for Virgina, a Jesuit Catholic who served as a missionary in Honduras and whose son is currently deployed with NATO, is basically America’s Dad — a thoroughly dull, aging white guy who clumsily attempts to invoke humour and jokes. He seems as primed for Onion parody as Diamond Joe, but with the parody leaning more towards the Boring Tim Duncan end of the spectrum than The President of Vice. He also took good-hearted flak for his tortured attempt at a Donald Trump impression, his caricature of the Orange Fascist’s “believe me” tagline. It was the Dad-iest of Dad moves.
It was also brilliant.
Tim Kaine’s VP speech underscored a lot of the reasons that he’s an excellent choice for Hillary Clinton’s running mate: he’s down to earth and folksy — his speech sounded off the cuff and genuine in a way that many political speeches don’t. He spoke openly in both his DNC speech and his initial introduction as Clinton’s running mate of his Catholic faith — by all indications, he will do important work to reclaim the mantle of political Christianity from the Republican Party, which has often transformed it into a hyper-nationalist expression of chauvinism, bigotry, and vengeful judgement. Instead, Kaine approached his Catholicism as an appeal to social justice, to human decency, and to compassion. To me, it’s quite likely that him and Joe Biden will be permanently parked in Pennsylvania, the state in the Blue Wall that Trump stands the best chance of winning, from now until November 9th. They could well shake every single hand in the state.
But the Donald Trump impression remains the most brilliant part. Because he’s right. The Donald says “believe me!” A LOT. It’s a verbal tick, which also means that it’s virtually impossible for Trump to scrub from his rally speeches and interviews. And it means that every time Trump says “believe me” between now and the election, every person who watched Tim Kaine speak on Wednesday night will hear his mocking impression. In two words and a slight shift in tone, he transformed The Donald’s signature phrase into a reminder of his long record of dishonesty, fraud, and outright lies. If Obama’s speech was a reminder of how large a threat to decency and democracy Trump represents, Kaine’s was a reminder of how small a man Trump truly is.
If there were ever a reminder to speak softly and carry a giant stick, Tim Kaine’s speech to the DNC was it.
