Tim Kaine as a VP pick

[Ancestral Republican]

Kaine was a highly qualified pick, but he was NOT a good pick. Sure, he by no means single-handedly doomed Hillary's campaign, but his choice was emblematic of why Hillary lost. Her number one challenge was convincing the Obama coalition & voters in general that she represented real change in a year when the electorate wanted an outsider. The VP pick was the one big chance for her to signal that, even though Hillary herself was the consummate establishment politician, she had heard the message loud & clear and was ready to shake things up.

And Hillary had a number of strong choices to pick from, including Warren (who clearly wanted the job), Sanders (politically unthinkable but he would've unified the party & supercharged millennial turnout), Brown (Sanders-lite), or even somebody like Castro or Booker who at least would've added charisma to the ticket & helped to keep the Obama coalition engaged.

So what happened? Hillary chose not just another insider, but one utterly lacking in charisma, apparently for no other reason than that she just felt more comfortable with Kaine than with somebody like Warren, who would've been a disruptive presence in Clintonworld. To be fair, I know Tim Kaine is a nice guy who's highly qualified & would've helped with Senate outreach, but the VP doesn't necessarily need to fulfill that role or any particular role from a governing standpoint.

It was surreal seeing Democratic Party insiders & the Washington press all sing Kaine's praises, while meanwhile it was obvious to many young &/or left-leaning voters that he was a terrible choice for the reasons I mentioned above.

Clinton should have picked Sanders. She was always too obsessed with her personal brand and chemistry and in the end was too confident in the polls. It would have increased turnout by 1-2 million and ensured a Democratic victory.

[Ancestral Republican]

Kaine would be an improvement over Biden this year.

I dislike Kaine, so no.

At the time, i strongly disliked the choice.

Tim Kain definitely was not Hillary Clinton's best choice for running-mate. He came across as a very weak candidate and his reputation as a very liberal Catholic (Donald Trump and Mike Pence, who are traditionalist Catholics, made Tim Kaines liberal views on Catholicism as a major attack point on the campaign trail) may have hurt Hillary Clinton among more moderate and traditionalist Catholic voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. In retrospect, Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, or Julian Castro would have been much stronger vice Presidential choices for Hillary Clinton and may have swung enough voters to allow Hillary Clinton to win the election.

... neither Trump or Pence are Catholic. I think Pence used to be but is Evangelical now. I don't think the Kaine pick hurt them among Catholics, Catholics are just getting more conservative because the percent of practicing Catholics is getting smaller.