Why was Tim Kaine not a good VP choice for Hillary?

[Suburbia]

Is he presidential material? Would he have flopped in 2008 if Obama picked him as well?

[brucejoel99]

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.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Tim Kaine puts me to sleep and is low energy. Tom Carper and Mark Warner are boring like Kaine.

[Motorcity]

Tim Kaine didn't represent anything to anyone. He was a boring white guy that would have went to funerals and took photos.

Hillary needed to pick someone to appeal to the Bernie wing and she didnt

[BigVic]

A dud choice for VP. Castro would’ve been a better option

[Chips]

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.

[Motorcity]

Tim Kaine appeals to nobody. He is just a generic boring white male senator who would go to funerals.

I think he hurt the ticket because he projected an image of being a "yes man" to Hillary. A sign of over confidence that she didn't bother to pick someone from the progressive wing or even from a swing state

[dw93]

He wasn't Sarah Palin or Joe Lieberman bad, but he still wasn't good. Kaine was a boring candidate that added nothing to the ticket and was a middle finger to Bernie supporters. I still maintain Hillary should've picked Jeff Merkley.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Hillary was leading in the polls but females are the hidden vote and they didn't like the Benghazi story and Lewisky hurt Hillary due to not leaving Bill CLINTON so she could pursue her own Prez ambitions.

The only people Rs have defeats were Gore, Kerry and Hillary who were akin to Bill Clinton, thus tied to Lewinsky


Obama, Biden 0/3

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Around the time of the VP search, Bernie was probably#2 to Trump as the most hated political figure among Hillary supporters. What with stretching the primaries out to the very end, complaining about favoritism from the DNC & threatening a roll-call fight (Among other incidents).

Eh, what? Bernie Sanders had like a 77% favorability rating amongst Clinton voters. Undoubtedly some people might have been annoyed with him, but that doesn't mean he was the second most hated political figure. And even then, once the campaigning together began, people likely would have put their primary qualms aside.

[Flyersfan232]

It's interesting seeing the "Hillary should've picked a progressive to appease the Bernie voters" take in hindsight when its one that would've certainly fallen on deaf ears in the summer of 2016.

Around the time of the VP search, Bernie was probably#2 to Trump as the most hated political figure among Hillary supporters. What with stretching the primaries out to the very end, complaining about favoritism from the DNC & threatening a roll-call fight (Among other incidents).

If you suggested that she cowtow to those people in July 2016, there was a non-zero chance of being told to "go f**k yourself"

What about warren?

[Schiff for Senate]

VA was locked down, and his key purpose was likely delivering its 13 electoral votes. Bob Casey would be much, much better, if the goal is to win a state.

[McGarnagle]

Hillary was going to win Virginia anyway and Kaine didn't excite anyone who wasn't already going to vote for Hillary

[UWS]

Maybe also Kaine’s past anti-abortion stance when he was Governor cost Clinton progressive votes.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Kaine not only locked down a state that didn't need to be locked down, but he didn't bring anything new to the table.

[perpetual_cynic]

He is viewed as a beta male.