Tim Walz knows his stuff

Tim Walz gave his business card yesterday with visible pleasure during his first appearance as a running mate.

His energy aligns well with the optimistic vibes of the Harris campaign. He not only complements that with the "normal Mid-Western guy" feel the Harris team was looking for, but also brings rhetorical ingenuity.

His communication is refreshing, personal and effective. That was evident earlier with his "these guys are just weird" tactic, which was adopted by virtually the entire Democratic Party in no time.

In an interview with Ezra Klein for his New York Times podcast, Walz says: "[Trump] is an existential threat to global peace in my opinion, the threat to women's reproductive rights, strip constitutional power and division, all those things are true. What I see is, that stuff is overwhelming to people. [...] And for me, as a teacher, you couldn't make your case when people were in that mindset, in a fear mindset. [...] It's the emperor wearing no clothes, it's all this story is. The minute you said that, the spell broke, it dropped down. This guy is weird stories and inability to connect like a human being in any way." His point: you have to bring it down to manageable proportions; the existential gevarentrom is paralyzing, it is more effective to expose that behind the clamor are silly little men we can (also) laugh at.

Rhetorical bag of tricks
With his speech yesterday, he showed that his bag of tricks is bigger.
For example, several times he manages to use figures of speech to get his audience to clap (so-called clap traps).
For example, with the antanaclasis: "I learned the art of compromise, without compromising my values."
And with three-paragraph phrases, such as: "Those are the same values I learned on the farm. I took it to congress, and to the State Capitol. And now, VP Harris and I are running to take those very values to the White House."

He employs biting humor: "And make no mistake, violent crime was up under Donald Trump. That's not even counting the crimes he committed."

And fights Republicans with their own weapon: the Karl Rove tactic of attacking your opponent precisely on his strength. "Some of us are old enough to remember when it was Republicans who were talking about freedom. It turns out now, what they meant is, it is the government who should be free to invade your doctor's office. [...] In Minnesota there's a golden rule: Mind your own damn business". Whereby he dismisses Trump/Vance as freedom threatening and portrays Harris/Walz as the true freedom champions.

As noted in many American media outlets: his style is playful. And it tastes like more.