When Trump picked JD Vance as his running mate, the legacy press held Vance’s feet to the fire, with hard-hitting, wall-to-wall coverage that interrogated the Ohio senator’s life story, his policy positions, his political alliances, and the ins and outs of his relationship to the 45th president.

The fourth estate did its job, in other words — helping Americans understand Trump’s heir apparent, and ensuring he was thoroughly vetted for the job.

If only the same could be said of their treatment of Kamala Harris’ VP pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

As news broke of Walz’s inclusion on the Democratic ticket, The New York Times elucidated “5 Key Reasons That Kamala Harris Picked Tim Walz”, the first of which lauded — wait for it — Walz’s “plucky dad vibes”.

“He seems to enjoy doting on the family cat, Honey,” the paper of record observed. “Denizens of the internet, a place that is popular with cat lovers, have responded with fulsome support.”  

Cat people for Harris-Walz pic.twitter.com/Z88By4yrSD

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 6, 2024

Somehow, unexplained, rigorous scrutiny for VP picks vanished overnight. Favours come easy for a man the media hopes will waltz straight to the White House.

At first glance, Walz is indeed a daggy Midwestern dad sporting relatively centrist political views within the Democratic fold.

His hardy rural roots and coloured backstory even bear some resemblance to those of Vance. As highlighted recently by Harris herself via an Instagram post:

[Walz’s] father died of cancer when he was 19, and his family relied on Social Security survivor benefit checks to make ends meet. At 17, he enlisted in the National Guard, serving for 24 years. He used his GI Bill benefits to go to college, and become a teacher.

Below the surface, however, Walz boasts a notable progressive track record. And it’s not just me saying so.

In slightly more incisive prose than was offered in the cat dad fluff piece, the Times pegged Walz as a progressive within America’s progressive party, though the Gray Lady’s admission was somewhat roundabout.

Walz “does relatively little to define or redefine Ms. Harris,” the Times mused Tuesday. “In particular, he doesn’t help compensate for what figures to be her core weakness with swing voters: her record on the border or her history of staking out progressive positions.”

The Times added that Harris’ choice of Walz “won’t assuage concerns that she’s too far to the left; his selection doesn’t signal that Ms. Harris intends to govern as a moderate.”

The Economist has likewise said of Walz, “Barely known outside Minnesota a month or so ago, he has become a leading light of the left of the Democratic Party” — adding, “He is, in the minds of many, proof that Democrats can win without having to compromise on their core values.”

It’s not as though pickings were slim in the veepstakes. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and US Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona were all in the running — each of whom would likely have secured their respective battleground state on a Harris ticket.