Current and former Southern California politicians reacted Friday to Hillary Clinton’s choice of Virginia Sen.
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HILLARY Clinton has chosen Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia to be her running mate in the race to the White House. Tim Kaine as the party’s vice presidential candidate this fall.
The announcement ends months of speculation about who Clinton would pick to round out her ticket.
The pick comes as the Clinton campaign tries to paint newly anointed Republican nominee Donald Trump as divisive and risky, a theme they hit hard coming out of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Kaine’s midwestern roots also run strong: Born in Minnesota, Kaine is the son of a welder who was raised in Kansas and graduated from the University of Missouri.
Active in the Senate on foreign relations and military affairs, the 58-year old Kaine has a reputation for working with both parties as Virginia’s governor and Richmond’s mayor. After serving as a Richmond city councilmember and part-time mayor, Kaine became the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor when the presumed candidate dropped out following a cancer diagnosis.
Clinton’s pick is notable because Virginia is a critical swing state in the presidential election, said Los Angeles-based political consultant Dave Jacobson. Cory Booker and Massachusetts Sen.
Liberals such as DFA’s Chamberlain have held out hope Clinton would use the VP selection to offer an olive branch to liberals.
Clinton made the announcement via Twitter after the first day of a two-day campaign swing in Florida. “He will fight tooth and nail for American families, and hell be a dogged fighter in our campaign against Donald Trump and Mike Pence”, she said.
Clinton and Kaine are set to appear together at a rally around noon Saturday in Miami. Following the weekend, the pair will go into the Democratic National Convention Monday in Philadelphia.
But rather than stay focused on Clinton or reach out to the general election voters he now must court, the newly minted Republican nominee spent considerable time stoking the fire of his bitter quarrel with Republican former rival Ted Cruz. For Trump to win, he’d likely have to drive up the white-male turnout to very high levels.
David Axelrod, a top Democratic strategist applauded the pick as a “really solid choice” for Clinton and called him a “thoroughly admirable man”.
Kaine also has experience as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Friends and colleagues describe Kaine as someone who prides himself on his ability to work with a broad spectrum of political adversaries.
Other vice-presidential contenders such as Sherrod Brown of OH and Cory Booker of New Jersey were considered, but their appointments would have meant they were replaced by a Republican, given that both states have governors from that party. The couple has three children.
If she chooses Kaine, Clinton will bypass vice-presidential candidates who would have generated excitement among liberal and Hispanic activists, including progressive favorite U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and two Hispanic Cabinet members, Julian Castro and Thomas Perez.
Kaine, she believes, would bolster her chances to defeat Republican nominee Donald J. Trump in November.
Ultimately, Clinton was swayed by her personal comfort with Kaine, as well as the belief that the senator is fully prepared to do the job.
“This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness”, he said.
Some progressives and former backers of Bernie Sanders’ presidential candidacy started signaling their dissatisfaction with the choice of Sen. In fact, he might make the case for her nearly better than Clinton does.
“Do you want a ‘You’re fired!’ president or a “You’re hired!’ president?'” Kaine asked the crowd”. “Do you want a trash-talking president or a bridge-building president?” If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
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