Tim Walz's 15 minutes of fame are up

It’s an unwritten rule in politics that candidates don’t choose running mates who will outshine them. Thus, Barack Obama chose Joe Biden, Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris, and Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz. Notice a trend? It’s reverse Darwinism, and if this downward spiral continues, Tim Walz will need to find a running mate he outshines. No small task.

But it’s doubtful Walz will get the chance. Democrats will come to their senses and return him to well-deserved obscurity. As a former vice-presidential candidate, he thinks he now has the gravitas to run for higher office, and is already flapping his gums at political events, but he’s mistaken. The only reason Harris chose him as her running mate was to — here comes that hackneyed phrase — “balance the ticket.” She’s a (relatively) young, mixed-race, San Francisco liberal female, and she thought she needed an older, white, mid-western, bird-hunting grandfather to get the guns-and-bibles votes. (It would be an added bonus if he whittled.) But she underestimated the guns-and-bibles voters, who can smell a phony a mile away. It didn’t help when Walz invited reporters to a pheasant hunt, then looked like Elmer Fudd when he couldn’t figure out how to load his shotgun.

So long, Tim. Your 15 minutes are up. Go back to putting tampons in boys' bathrooms, and while you’re at it, put urinals in the girls' bathrooms. You need to be inclusive.

DAVE MUNDELL

Sandpoint