“Serve one another. That’s what I’m about”.
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Kaine says his father-in-law remains a Republican, but is voting for Democrats because “any party that would nominate Donald Trump for president has moved too far away from his party of Lincoln”. “Hillary’s passion is kids and families”.
Indeed, Kaine’s whole speech seemed created to portray himself as the flawless contrast to Trump – humble where Trump is egotistical, earnest where Trump is cynical, and honest where Trump lies.
Clinton has described him as a “progressive who likes to get things done”, who is “everything that Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not”. In 2012, Clinton called the TPP “the gold standard of trade agreements”, but after beginning her presidential run, she said she couldn’t endorse the deal “in its current form”.
“Tim Kaine is very establishment”, said Chris Gallagher Ekstedt, a Sanders delegate from High Point.
He tied together his faith and his political career, arguing that he, Clinton, and other Democrats are motivated primarily by a desire to do good and improve the world. Because Trump has no idea who Tim even is. “I never expected to be here”, NBC News quoted Kaine as saying. The question is whether voters will believe him. But some supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders stood and cheered as Kaine paid homage to his unsuccessful presidential campaign.
“We all should feel the Bern and we all should not want to get burned by the other guy”, Kaine said, to cheers.
Kaine’s father-in-law is a former Virginia governor, Linwood Holton.
“I won that first race, more than 20 years ago, by 94 votes. We’re all neighbors and we must love our neighbors as ourselves”, he said. He may spend little time on Capitol Hill when a divisive Congress – now in a seven-week recess – returns in September to pass a temporary spending bill to avoid a government shutdown on October 1 when the new budget year begins.
CNN reported Wednesday the party had scratched a speech nominating Kaine by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Virginia) out of fear it would draw boos against Kaine. “Not one word”, Kaine said, briefly starting a chant of “not one word”.
Yet the threat of Trump hasn’t led to an open embrace of Kaine by liberals, who had pined for Clinton to select Massachusetts Sen.
Earlier Wednesday, Kaine gave Virginia’s convention delegation a taste of his acceptance speech.
“We better elect the candidate who’s proven she can be trusted with the job”, he said. And people are going to be able to see themselves in that office who never could have imagined it before. “That’s why I’m so proud”.
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The ex-governor, also a former mayor of Richmond and city council member, hasn’t lost an election in Virginia since his first campaign in the mid-1990s. But he also took the time on stage to mock Donald Trump.
