An "I'll show up and vote" choice, instead of an "I'm inspired and I'll run with it" choice.

I am already excited and inspired by Hillary.

change of hearts and minds. He signed anti gay legislation he had promised to veto. He is definitive of the past wrongs of this Party.

I've never forced myself to vote for a presidential candidate in spite of their VP choice. And ... I've never not voted for a presidential candidate because of their VP choice.

making the extra effort to help Hillary win. That would be the difference.

Are you referring to the ultra-liberal wing of our party?

Some that I speak with at work. Some that I correspond with as friends, through personal email, twitter, and other means. Family members who I've spoken with in the last week. My own 74 yr old mother and 39 year old sister, both who saw reports yesterday of Kaine being the likely pick and were dumbfounded why she wasn't picking Elizabeth Warren after seeing them together earlier this year. That is just a start. There are others that I don't know because I know I am not an isolated individual. These are all people who will vote for Hillary but who put in differing amounts of time and effort in GOTV efforts depending on motivation and inspiration.

Kaine is dead weight as a motivating factor, especially since there were easily more progressive choices than he to pair with Hillary's own less than abundantly left-leaning past.

And we are mainstream Democrats who always vote and always vote Democratic.

I started volunteering at the age of 10, when I worked on the RFK campaign in California. Then again for McGovern in '72 (at 14).

I've volunteered in most presidential races since. Phone banked for Obama and helped fundraise both times.

I like HRC. But this choice of Kaine is dispiriting in the extreme.

Warren would have fired enthusiasm. Kaine is like a wet-blanket.

This pick will make getting out the vote a chore, for an election we must not lose.

So color me: Very very disappointed.

Bill

Let's do what we can, whatever it may be, for the best possible outcome given the cards we are dealt.

... people who are less motivated, like the ones you've described. I've never really understood people who felt that they could only support a candidate if they "fell-in-love" with that candidate. I tend to look at things more logically, rather than being motivated strictly by emotions.

That's not the role of a VP selection.


She doesn't need anyone or anything to "balance" her campaign. She's always campaigned from the center. A little left here, a little right there, but on the whole, she's squarely in the center.

Elections are won from the center. That's why Hillary won the primary and that's why she'll win the General Election. The VP selection isn't a consolation prize for those who didn't support her. If it was, she'd have picked Bernie. Instead, she picks someone that she feels is qualified, and that she gets along with and can work with.

I don't need to fall-in-love with a candidate. I need to see that he/she is heading in a governing direction that I can accept. I have supported Hillary and will continue to do so. I will vote for her. I say that over and over as to not be misunderstood. But this vp choice is a MAJOR decision, a factor that lets me glimpse her thinking, and a Kaine choice would leave me incredibly discouraged.

You say Hillary has always campaigned from the center. I agree. But "always", as in the past, may not be what is need for NOW or in the future. She did win the primary, closely. I supported her. Bernie Sanders would not have been a vp consolation prize for me, I can tell you. But other qualified progressives as vp would have added what I think is needed currently to bring together the largest segments of our citizenry that are apt to vote Democratic this year. THIS YEAR. Times do change, and I think the primary season demonstrated that.

The past sometimes bites you in the ass if you live in it too long. I hope that is not what happens to us Democrats this year, because it would be a most poisonous bite!

Sen. Tim Kaine is a foot soldier in the Obama Coalition, regardless of his race. Was an early Obama endorser in 2008 and was his DNC chair.

Nor do I need to "fall in love with a candidate" as a previous poster insultingly suggests.

A hard political calculus shows HRC pretty much owns the center, a good place to be in electoral politics. But the Democratic party is a big tent. HRC beat Bernie Sanders, but the margin of victory over a virtually unknown Senator from a small state who only sort-of-just joined the party should not make any of those who supported her feel over-confident, especially when comparing the youth vote.

I want, beyond any other consideration, to win in November. To win the White House. To win the Senate. And to get close in the House.

My hard-headed analysis is that a Clinton-Warren ticket would be far more conducive to meeting those ends than a Clinton-Kaine ticket. I think picking him will be a very bad choice, in a year when we can afford self-inflicted errors.