July 24, 2016 7:59 AM

And now, the oral sex...uh, I mean the sales job (2016 edition)....

(How ‘bout a trip in the Wayback Machine?)

I’ll admit it: My initial reaction upon hearing that Hillary Clinton picked Tim Kaine as her Vice President was one of intense disappointment. How could I help but be underwhelmed by a politician who freely admits to being boring? If were to play word association, what’s the first word that comes to mind when you think of Tim Kaine?

Boring, amiright?

Then I stepped back from my disappointment and reconsidered my initial reaction. What do I really know about Tim Kaine? Sure, he’s a Democrat, a former US Senator and Governor of Virginia, someone who’s never lost an election, and…

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….

There are a lot of reasons for a Presidential candidate to select a running mate, but only Hillary Clinton can truly elucidate her reasoning in selecting Kaine. As the days pass, particularly as we get into this week’s Democratic National Convention, I suspect much time, energy, and effort will be spent introducing Tim Kaine to America.

What little I do know about him is positive, and there seems little doubt but that he admirably embodies and reflects the values of America and the Democratic Party.

Still, like a lot of Liberals I’d been hoping for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

Tim Kaine? Really?? Was Fred Rogers not available? Oh, right; he’s dead. Details….

I began to troll my memory banks, remembering how I’d reacted when then-Sen. Barack Obama (R-IL) selected then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) as his running mate. If memory serves…and I have the WWJD archives available to serve as my guide…I wasn’t exactly doing cartwheels. At the time, Biden seemed a safe but boring choice- another uninspiring White guy with all the spice of a vanilla ice cream cone.

Eight years later, and…well, who says history isn’t circular, eh? I’ve been here before.

If you’d told me three or four days ago that Joe Biden would be Barack Obama’s choice for VP, I would have been terribly disappointed. I’ve got to tell you, though, after watching yesterday’s unveiling in Springfield, IL, I’m convinced that Obama made, if not the right choice, then certainly a very good one. There are arguments that could be made for a number of different politicians, and none of these choices would be the “wrong” one. The truly important aspect of the VP choice is the necessity that, once the choice is made, the campaign hits the ground running at full speed. After watching and listening to the speeches of both Obama and Biden, I think they hit exactly the right note.

Almost eight years ago (August 24, 2008, to be exact) I reacted to a Democratic nominee’s VP choice in a similar manner. Joe Biden seemed so normal and…boring. That I (and much of the rest of America) didn’t know much about him certainly contributed to a collective perception of him as bland, boring, and vanilla.

In retrospect, it would seem President Obama made exactly the right choice. Sure, Biden has occasionally done a serviceable impression of the Ronco Gaffemaster 3000. He’s also demonstrated himself to be principled, compassionate, and dedicated- qualities not found residing in a politician on the national level. As dedicated to his family as he is to his country, Vice President Biden has been a partner to President Obama in every sense of the word. Though he’s not without ambitions of his own- he seriously toyed with the idea of running for President against Hillary Clinton- he’s demonstrated himself to be a wise, capable, and competent team player.

In other words, Joe Biden was a perfect choice.

As America gets to know Tim Kaine, I suspect we’ll come to understand that he and Joe Biden and cut from the same cloth. Kaine is by no means a blindly hyper-religious ideologue, though he’s belonged to the same church for three decades. He believes faith is a deeply personal issue, not something to be used to gauge a person’s “worthiness” to serve. I doubt we’ll hear him describe himself (a la Mike Pence) as “a Christian first, a Liberal second, and a Democrat third.” “Boring” isn’t always a bad thing. The Republican Presidential nominee is an egomaniacal despot who’s cultivated a cult of personality and poses a legitimate threat to American democracy…and his running mate is a hyper-religious zealot who believes his God should be our government. Sometimes “boring” is exactly what the doctor ordered.

In this case, if history once again proves itself to be circular, I think America will be in pretty good hands.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on July 24, 2016 7:59 AM.

I don't think this is what the Almighty had in mind was the previous entry in this blog.

In case you might be wondering why this election is so important.... is the next entry in this blog.

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